backward compatibility brought to the table with this patent

Over a year ago, when the PS5 was released to the market, one of the main questions asked was about backward compatibility, and what the next-gen console could do in that area of ​​expertise. Sony’s response was, in the end, not much. Today, only PS4 titles benefit from effective backward compatibility on PS5, depending on the title. However, this aspect could soon be corrected with new technology.

Which would really fill the blanks in here. Y’know?

Anyway https://t.co/meIfuVaP5u pic.twitter.com/gEk2me4S8C

– Shaun (@shaunmcilroy) January 12, 2022

The arrival of classics of all generations?

We owe this discovery to Shaun McIlroy, who unearthed a new patent, which has just been approved by the competent office. Named ” backward compatibility through the use of a dummy clock and fine-grained frequency control », It would have been deposited by Mark Cerny, the main architect of the PS5 (and of the PS4 and PS Vita before it). It concerns how the PS5, through software, could match, and mimic, the performance of older consoles in order to run games of the corresponding generation.

An ingenious system which is still very vague in its specifics. One thing is nevertheless certain, backward compatibility is coming, although we do not yet know in what form, and especially for which console. While all the favors are for the PS5, there is a slim possibility that only the PS4 is affected, or that the technology will be used to improve the backward compatibility already present.

However, the Internet user seems rather convinced by the most probable option. He even managed to bring out an image of the presentation of the latest generation console, on which we can see empty places, which are just waiting to be filled with the right names of consoles.

Towards an improved PlayStation Now?

Gamers on the lookout will know that Sony is currently working on its own version of Game Pass, an on-demand video game service offered by its competitor Microsoft. This, according to the latest rumors, should be based on the PlayStation Now, while offering a more extensive, more qualitative catalog, and especially the possibility of playing games from older generations.

This patent could therefore quite be linked to this still mysterious project, which should also see the light of day by spring 2022. For the moment, Sony has not yet confirmed anything of the sort, and we must therefore take these information with enormous tweezers.