One of the biggest questions that PlayStation fans have had is whether or not Sony’s next-generation console will support games from the PS1, PS2, and PS3 eras. While the chances of that aren’t looking very good (only backward compatibility of PS4 titles have been mentioned thus far), a new discovery suggests that legacy support could be coming to the PlayStation 5 in one way or another.
As spotted by Twitter user @Renka_schedule (via Inverse), Sony has filed a patent for what appears to be a cloud-based backward-compatibility system for the PS5. “A large number of game titles across PS1/PS2/PS3 and various generations of game consoles can be stored and used via the cloud gaming library,” according to Renka. “These games can be run on a virtual machine that mimics the operating system associated with each game console.”
SIEのPS5？特許情報をメモします。
— れんか (@Renka_schedule) July 4, 2020
・PS1/PS2/PS3、様々な世代のゲーム機にわたる大量のゲームタイトルが、クラウドゲーミングライブラリを介して蓄積され利用可能。
・これらのゲームは、それぞれのゲーム機に関連したオペレーティングシステムを模倣した仮想マシンの上で実行可能。 pic.twitter.com/TsWV859OLd
The documentation is vague on how this cloud-based backward-compatibility system would work on a technical level, but it seems like a natural step for Sony to take – after all, the company already runs a cloud-based gaming subscription service in the form of PlayStation Now. We don’t know if this new system would be rolled into that, but it’d be cool if Sony figured out how to make those old, physical discs relevant again.