With the end of the eighth video game generation drawing ever closer, rumors about Sony's next console are becoming more abundant. According to HobbyConsolas, the PlayStation 5 could be one of the consoles with the largest libraries in the world. Sony Japan reportedly registered a backward-compatibility patent that could significantly expand the new device's library, allowing PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 titles to be played on the PS5.
The website says, "This is a system that will be applied to a future machine, PS5, and allows the new console's CPU to 'interpret' the central processing unit of earlier machines." Mark Cerny, the architect who designed the PS4's structure and design, is said to be responsible for the patent. The patent was reportedly filed under number 2019-503013.
The website goes into more detail about the patent, claiming, "The aim is to make applications designed for earlier consoles, the legacy devices, run perfectly on the more powerful hardware, focusing on eliminating synchronization errors between the new console and the behavior of its predecessors, the PS4, PS3, PS2, and PS1. For example, if the new console's CPU is faster than the previous one, the data can be saved as though another component were being used."
With this new system, the PS5 would be able to imitate the behavior of earlier consoles in such a way that the information reaching the different processors would develop as a response to the games' "calls." It would be able to detect each game's requirements and behave as though it were the original machine.
This would certainly make the console truly incredible for the next generation, but for now fans will have to wait for more information.
Digital Foundry Presenter Strengthens the Case
In a response on Twitter, without connecting his statement to any claim in the story above, John Linneman, a writer and video presenter on the Digital Foundry channel, replied about backward compatibility on PS5. "It absolutely will. Full stop," he stated.
https://twitter.com/dark1x/status/1090946857046589440
Another user inferred that he "seriously doubted" it. Linneman immediately replied, "Well, prepare to be wrong then! It has become a strategic sales issue again. PS3 backward compatibility was never going to happen, but PS4's X86 will be super easy."
https://twitter.com/dark1x/status/1090989226286637056
