Sony Files Backwards Compatibility Patent

[Mavrick]

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...cerny,+mark%22

Absolutely no idea what the details mean, or even if this pertains to PS4 or if it is for use with PS5.

Personally I would much rather this be a feature for PS5 making it able to play every generation of PS software would be a pretty decent selling point.

[Musashi]

Guess we'll see. Many patents are filed that don't end up being used for anything.

A PS5 with full-on backwards compatibility would be nice. I could picture it playing PS4 games with Pro-like enhancements if it uses an AMD APU. For PS3, it would likely need a Cell, but by 2020 it could probably be produced cheaply and possibly used like the ARM processor in the PS4: for background tasks. Or be available as an add-in card. PS1-2 could use software emulators; those have come a long way in recent years.

[dyne]

Originally Posted by Mavrick

Personally I would much rather this be a feature for PS5 making it able to play every generation of PS software would be a pretty decent selling point.

More than likely this might mean they're going custom chipset for the 5 and don't want to erode the base they have now by saying "sorry, can't play your PS4 games on this one."

But nobody uses back compat anyway so why would SONY be interested in it all of the sudden

[Batman90]

Sony and Microsoft better do something amazing with their next consoles I wasn’t impressed at all with the PS4 or X1 the PS3 and 360 can still do more then what these consoles still can’t do. Next gen consoles should have Every feature that previous consoles has out of the box without waiting for updates. I shouldn’t have to download a Bluray app to play Bluray or connect my consoles to the internet so they can play Blurays and they should have external hard five support out of the Xbox as well.

[dyne]

Originally Posted by Batman90

they should have external hard five support out of the Xbox as well.

The Xbox was the first to have external HDD support.

[Batman90]

Originally Posted by dyne

The Xbox was the first to have external HDD support.

Not out of the box still had to wait for it to be added. This gen was a complete joke. If new gen consoles cant do what the past consoles did out of the box then what’s the point in making a new console?

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by Batman90

Sony and Microsoft better do something amazing with their next consoles I wasn’t impressed at all with the PS4 or X1 the PS3 and 360 can still do more then what these consoles still can’t do. Next gen consoles should have Every feature that previous consoles has out of the box without waiting for updates. I shouldn’t have to download a Bluray app to play Bluray or connect my consoles to the internet so they can play Blurays and they should have external hard five support out of the Xbox as well.

Still haven't even upgraded from PS3. Too many remasters, lackluster current-gen titles, shitty business practices, lag time between new titles and lack of basic features. Every time I go to pull the trigger on a current gen console I shrug and end up going to the pub instead.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by dyne

But nobody uses back compat anyway

Actually, some of us never forgave Sony for ridding their systems of it.

[dyne]

Originally Posted by 20th Century Boy

Actually, some of us never forgave Sony for ridding their systems of it.

Oh trust me, that was a very tongue in cheek comment by me. I'm absolutely loving the back compat on my X. The 360 games that have X patches look amazing.

[Mavrick]

Originally Posted by dyne

More than likely this might mean they're going custom chipset for the 5 and don't want to erode the base they have now by saying "sorry, can't play your PS4 games on this one."

But nobody uses back compat anyway so why would SONY be interested in it all of the sudden

To be honest I haven't used any back compat on the Xbox. It was the same with PS3, I never finished FF XII because the PS3 came out right around the time I was playing that and I just couldn't go back to it once I'd started playing games in "HD" on my new 1080p Bravia.

So for me personally it wouldn't get much use regardless but as a selling point for Sony it would be ideal just like it was for MS.

[dyne]

Originally Posted by Mavrick

To be honest I haven't used any back compat on the Xbox. It was the same with PS3, I never finished FF XII because the PS3 came out right around the time I was playing that and I just couldn't go back to it once I'd started playing games in "HD" on my new 1080p Bravia.

So for me personally it wouldn't get much use regardless but as a selling point for Sony it would be ideal just like it was for MS.

I totally get that. It's funny because people either really love BC or don't at all. There's no middle ground. I'm not a graphics snob by any means (not to imply you are) and can still look at PS1 era games but I have to say that what the X does with the 360 games when patched is amazing. Gears of War 3 and Forza Horizon are crazy good looking. Honestly I'd say 80% of my Xbox time is spent in a back compat game. Mostly because I got rid of my 360 and was heavy into PS3 for the last two years of that gen.

Things like this are goodwill towards people entrenched in an ecosystem and I think the remaining 2 companies could get some value by incorporating BC somehow. Nintendo is the one I think that has a lot of ground to gain on that issue particularly for the VC if it ever comes. Not sure how many times they can expect people to shell out for the same 8 and 16 bit games every time they get a new Nintendo system.

[Zivouhr]

I'd like to be able to play all the PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 I have collected over the years on a single machine with PS5 games taking the spotlight. It would be so much simpler with less wiring. If this turns out as an option, it would include a disc drive on a PS5 if that was the case. All speculation, but interesting.

[NegaScott128]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

I'd like to be able to play all the PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4 I have collected over the years on a single machine with PS5 games taking the spotlight. It would be so much simpler with less wiring. If this turns out as an option, it would include a disc drive on a PS5 if that was the case. All speculation, but interesting.

Not necessarily. They could prevent the system from recognizing PS1-3 discs (I doubt they're stupid enough to block out PS4 discs) and require you to buy them again as downloads. It would suck, but they could do it.

I do expect the PS5 to have a disc drive though. Sony's probably still gonna keep trying to push UHD, and it would be beneficial to developers since we're already getting games that are straining against the 50GB limit of Blu-Ray.

[Frank@Chicago]

I'm still hoping Sony will sell their PS2 emulator (for PS4) in the PSN store, I have almost 150 PS2 games on disc and I'd love to load/play them on PS4.

If the emulator has fairly broad compatibility, it would be worth $39-59 depending on performance.

My understanding is the emulator runs PS2 games at 4X normal rez and jaggies are gone.

But no, I'm not rebuying all my PS2 games over again.

MS approach is OK too, I bought a cheap X1 mostly for BC and a few Exclusives.