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PlayStation 5 May Be Completely Back-Compatible

PlayStation 5 May Be Completely Back-Compatible

A patent for new tech has been filed in Japan

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

The eagerly-anticipated PlayStation 5 may not have a release date yet, but it might just be able to offer back compatibility with any game ever made for the Sony PlayStation.

Eagle-eyed gaming fans have spotted a new patent filed in Japan by the 'lead architect' of the PS4 chips, which would allow part of the new system's processor to act as a processor for all previously released PS games, meaning they could run straight off the bat. Clever, eh?

The new processor would essentially 'pretend' to be the same processor that was used on the older systems, dreamteamfc.com reports.


According to GearNuke, a summary of 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."

Understand any of that? No, us neither - but what it means is that old games can potentially be rendered to work on newer console models.

Of course, there are no guarantees that this patent is for the PS5 but that hasn't stopped fans from hoping, and with the new console likely to be the next project the company works up, it seems like it could be a very real prospect.

If this news has got you itching to get your filthy mitts on a PS5 then there's some bad news, as Sony has previously said it's unlikely it'll be released before 2021.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal last year, Sony's John Kodera said the console wouldn't be on sale within the next three years, adding that the team will be using the time to 'prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future'. Sounds exciting.

But you're going to have to hold on to those old game a little while longer...

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Playstation, Technology