When Microsoft first announced it was going to be making select Xbox 360 titles backwards compatible on the Xbox One, it left lots of PlayStation fans feeling pretty sad.
Most gamers now have a backlog of older console games that just aren’t playable on their shiny new current-gen PlayStation or Switch, making backwards compatibility a huge selling point for people looking to invest – or not invest – in a new console.
It seems Sony might be learning from its past mistakes though, as a newly-surfaced patent – titled ‘Remastering by emulation’ seems to suggest its next console, the PlayStation 5, will have backwards compatibility…
The patent reads: “Each asset such as a texture called for by legacy software such as a legacy computer game software has a unique identifier associated with it.
“The unique identifier can be rendered by imposing a hash on the asset, and then the asset stored with its identifier in a data structure. An artist remasters the textures for presentation on a higher resolution display than envisioned in the original software, and stores them back in the data structure with their identifiers.
“The original software is then played on the higher resolution display, with asset (such as texture) calls being intercepted, identified, and the data structure entered to retrieve the remastered asset having a matching identifier. The remastered asset is then inserted on the fly into the game presentation.”
As reported by GearNuke, the patent sounds like it’s hinting at backwards compatibility for the PS5 as opposed to the ‘Remastered’ edition.
It’s about time that Sony considered the backwards compatibility route for its consoles, because yeah – buying a Remastered edition of your favourite game just takes up room on your shelf and money out of your pocket…
What do you think about the patent, and would you like to see backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 5?