Sony files new patent for backwards compatibility

[snakebit10 4,971]

Here is a couple articles. Even though it doesn't specifically say PS5, One of the features I have been wanting to see when PS5 comes is full compatibility with at least the PS4 library.

 

 https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/02/01/new-sony-patent-has-fans-hoping-for-ps5-backward-compatibility

 

https://www.dualshockers.com/ps5-sony-backward-compatible-patent/

Edited February 1 by snakebit10

[Squirlruler 1,038]

Please oh please oh please include ps3/ps4 for ps5.

[Altergigo 240]

💪Sony👍

[fastflowdaman 555]

8 minutes ago, Squirlruler said:

Please oh please oh please include ps3/ps4 for ps5.

 

"While the patent makes no reference to any specific hardware, Hobby Consolas suggests this patent is for PlayStation 5 and that it will be able to emulate all previous Sony home consoles: PS4, PS3, PS2 and PS1."

 

That sounds even better. Only Vita/TV is missing

[skateak 3,243]

It will happen. I have no doubt the new Xbox will be BC with Xbone games so Sony would really be trippin if they didn't do the same. That was one of the whole reasons of switching X86 architecture, very easy BC. Imagine it would be a super boost mode. It would mostly likely make all the dynamic res games stay at the top end instead of dropping. Might even have a resolution and AF increase like some Xbone games do.

[Undead Wolf 10,990]

I've said before that backwards compatibility with PS4 is pretty much a given on PS5 due to the x86 architecture, but this patent suggests they may have found a way to emulate PS3 games which is very exciting. Of course, PS1 & PS2 emulation would be easy for them to do, so the dream of a PS5 that can play games from all the previous Sony home consoles is that much closer to being a reality. It would be amazing. I'm perfectly content with my PS4 and Vita for years to come, but if they really do pull this off, I'll have to seriously consider buying the PS5 on launch.

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy 2,193]

See for me, if Xbox plays 3 generations at the moment, and the next one is more than likely to play all of them as well, and there's only gonna be more games added as time goes by, that's the one I'll be going with.

 

So for Sony to pull me back, which, all they need is SOLID backwards compatibility and tbh I'm there, they NEED to be better for me to even look. Lot of people saying "I at least want PS4 compatibility", not me, man. See, I'll be defaulting to Xbox unless Sony announces something big, and if Xbox is where I'm headed, it means I'll still have my PS4 sitting there perfectly fine and ready to go, so if a PS5 plays all PS4 games as well as PS5 games, that's nice and all, but I'll already have a next gen console, so all I'd be doing is swapping my PS4 out for a PS5 that I wouldn't buy any PS5 games for and would just use as a PS4, and since I already have a Pro, I'm good on that front.

 

For Sony to actually beat Xbox at back compat, it's quite simple really, they need to just do one (big) thing.

 

MAKE THE EMULATOR FOR PS1 AND PS2 READ DISCS.

 

Sell certain games digitally, continue to make money off them as you should, I am more than fine with that. But going EXCLUSIVELY digital brings with it a billion problems, first to spring to mind is obviously that a solid majority at this point of PS2 games (and PS1, obviously) won't be able to be resold as the original owners/makers are long dead and/or no one has picked up the rights going forward yet. That means out the gate there's only so many games that CAN even come to the platform, most likely the same old shit you've already bought 100 times like Vice City...agaaaain. But even then, look at Vice City on PS4, it's a straight port job, and it's STILL inferior, with missing music, which brings me to point 2. Music rights. Even if Activision still had the rights to Tony Hawk for example, they could NEVER be re-released without renegotiating the deal on the songs featured in the game, which wouldn't happen, so you'd end up with either no music or no game at all, or best case, like THPS HD and Crazy Taxi, they just shove in a different soundtrack and it's still hella weird (though for the record, I don't actually mind the different, and bigger, soundtrack in Crazy Taxi's re-releases). Which finally, brings me to point 3. So you've got it down to a very limited number of games that could even come over, then a lot of those games won't even be able to come over because of music issues and so on, potentially leading, as it has in the past with some re-releases, to removed or altered content. Issue 3 man, is that after all is said and done, the game won't be the same as it was originally anyway, and at that point, you may as well just play an inferior port job, at least Vice City on Android looks gorgeous with all settings max'd. The way they are handling backward compatibility on PlayStation is fucking pathetic for one hundred reasons, but first and foremost, it's just flawed right out the gate. So what do you do?

 

MAKE THE EMULATOR FOR PS1 AND PS2 READ DISCS.

 

Boom. Done. If you make the emulator run at a system level and just work with whatever disc you put in there, you no longer need to resell games digitally, you no longer need to package the emulator with individual game files...but you still can. You can still sell Vice City for 23 bucks (which is ridiculous, but whatever) to all the newborns who didn't grow up on it and have a copy lying around. You can still make your money. But the people like me, who are sick of fucking rebuying it, can play the old disc copies we still have. And you might think, but how would Sony make any money off that? Here's fucking how, that gets me to buy their console. Which then gets me to buy games on their console, rather than on their competition's console. Boom. Seems obvious, right?

 

I'm not even getting crazy and asking for PSP or Vita emulation (that being said, upscaled PSP games running through my NVIDIA Shield honest to God look like early 360 games and I would be more than happy to play whatever digital PSP games I own through the PS5, it would be fantastic tbh, but I'm not dumb enough to think they'd be *that* consumer friendly), but I think it's not ridiculous to want disc playback, no? Xbox has it setup so you can, but it's only for X amount of games and while the number is ever growing, sure, it's still always going to be limited by the same problems selling them digitally on PS4 is. So why not beat them at their own game? Make the emulator in the PS5 play my fucking discs with no downloading or patching.

 

I'm already pretty committed to day one-ing the next Xbox, but I tell you what, if Sony announced the PS4 will play PS1, PS2, and PS4 DISCS (and preferably downloads as well as I own like 50 odd PS1/2 games digitally) out the gate, I'd jump ship in a heartbeat. Because it all goes back to what the console offers overall. Xbox 2 or PS5 will both play that generation's games fine, so I don't need both, it all comes down to who does more, and this is Sony's last chance to win me back and play more consoles... because if the PS5 can play my discs, I can just keep my Xbox One for all those Xbox games, and instead I buy next gen games on PS5. It's really that simple.

 

But then, we all got excited when they announced the patent to add trophies into PS1 and PS2 games years back and it amounted to like 30 PS2 games on the store and zero PS1 games so you know what, I'll believe it when I see it.

[JohnCenaSong- 208]

Unless the BC is for my entire digital library I'm not massively over excited, I keep my hardware and I've played 99% of my physical titles, it's mostly digital titles where my backlog lies.

 

To be honest, as neat as BC is, I still don't understand why people are so hugely obsessed with it and constantly demanding BC. I'll be grateful for whatever we get, if BC is coming, especially if it allows for easy access to streaming/recording older PS titles without needing to invest in a capture setup.

[GoldenShaka 1,244]

Compatibilty with all our psn collection would be a dream come true, but I can't believe they getting rid of PSNow soon.

What I think it's going to happen next generation is a division of ps plus subscription, something like Basic and Elite.

[Lance_87 807]

25 minutes ago, fastflowdaman said:

 

"While the patent makes no reference to any specific hardware, Hobby Consolas suggests this patent is for PlayStation 5 and that it will be able to emulate all previous Sony home consoles: PS4, PS3, PS2 and PS1."

 

That sounds even better. Only Vita/TV is missing

 

Well, of course, even PSP is missing. Home consoles normally don't support portable games, and vice-versa.

 

But hey, having a PS5 compatible with all old home systems would be the ultimate gaming system lol.

[EdinhoN 391]

Well, I'm personally not excited for backwards compatibility.

It'll cool down the remaster market which adds replay factor for me with a brand new trophy list with an improved game.

Even if PS5 runs all PS games via emulation chances are I'll never run a non PS5 game in it: I won't sell my PS3 and PS4, thus I will prefer playing in them to avoid stressing unecessarily my brand new (expensive) platform.

Edited February 1 by EdinhoN

[Cryogenicide_X 41]

Hopefully PS5 will be backwards compatible with all previous PlayStation consoles. If not, PS4 at least. I also hope PS5 has a UHD bluray player, Sony never gave the PS4 Pro one which was a mistake. Even the Xbox One S has UHD bluray player.

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy 2,193]

Also, y'all need to fucking read.

 

I love a good rant, I stand by my rant, but if you read any further than the IGN article (IGN itself is almost always worth fact checking these days), you'd be full of skepticism about this.

[snakebit10 4,971]

Added article from Dualshockers also.

[dmland12 1,076]

Thanks for the links.  At least it shows that they're working on BC, so it would be pretty surprising if the PS5 wasn't at least compatible with PS4 games.  PS3 emulation would be more difficult because of it's weird CPUs, so we'll have to see if gets past the design/patent stage or not.

 

Personally, BC is not a deal breaker for me, but it would be foolish of Sony to not do as much as they can here.

[EternalChaos72 982]

Wonder will It be compatible for the PS3 aswell. There's so many games that i need to finish on the PS3 which i never got around to and I completely ditched the PS3 once the PS4 was released. 

[thefourfoldroot 230]

Hopefully Sony just release a BC version and non BC version. I have no desire to pay again to play games I can already play on my PS4. Unfortunately, features like this will mean Sony have to make performance cuts in other areas to still keep a consumer acceptable price point. 

[gameoverDude189 261]

Full BC on PS5?  Yes please.  Hopefully this is with disc support for all games... there are some good titles that can of course no longer be bought off PSN due to license expiration issues.  Sony, just think... if you did that, people could sell their older PS systems to help pay for the PS5.

 

Hopefully the BC isn't a per-game thing like Xbox One.  This is a glaring weak spot that Sony should try to hit Microsoft in.

[Asvinia 708]

"Suggests"

"Hopes for"

If anything it'll just be updating PSNow to include PS4 games on the PS5. Why would they allow bc when this gen has made it clear that people are willing to buy remaster after remaster? People are happy to pay full price for a game they already paid full price for years previously. They're not going to pat you on the back and thank you for being a loyal customer, I'd be incredibly surprised if it was bc at all. Especially since there's been no history of bc for Sony consoles besides PS2 running PS1 games and a 60GB PS3 running some PS2 games.

[kingdrake2 2,113]

On 2/1/2019 at 2:40 PM, GoldenShaka said:

Compatibilty with all our psn collection would be a dream come true, but I can't believe they getting rid of PSNow soon.

What I think it's going to happen next generation is a division of ps plus subscription, something like Basic and Elite.

 

i would be willing to pay more for that if it gave something nice out for the extra money.

though if/when ps5 does come out i'll still be working through my ps3 backlog there is no shortage of games.

Edited February 3 by kingdrake2

[DeepestTempest 7]

All games. Backwards compatible.  No exceptions.  I'll poop donuts if Sony successfully makes PS1-PS4 physical compatibility.