PlayStation 5, Sony’s next-gen PlayStation console, is going to be backward compatible with PlayStation 4, according to the details shared in the new patent from Sony.
Sony has made it clear several times in the past that it doesn’t see backwards compatibility as something that it needs to provide to its users anytime soon, and this reasoning possibly includes PS5 alongside the currently existing platforms.
At this point, though, this could be changing rapidly, maybe based on the amount of positive feedback Microsoft is receiving for its support to older platforms such as the original Xbox and last gen Xbox 360.
A patent (screenshot posted below) from the Japanese platform holder suggests indeed a backwards compatibility functionality could be supported in the future by PlayStation 5. The patent, which has been updated on February 13, hints at “backward compatibility testing of software in a mode that disrupts timing.”
While we don’t know precisely what this patent means, it is obvious that backwards compatibility with PS4, PS3 and perhaps even PS Vita might be part of the discussion when PS5 gets announced at some point in around 2019 or 2020.
Just gonna leave this here. pic.twitter.com/JQwrk3hAFR
— Tidux (@Tidux) March 5, 2018
Global PlayStation marketing boss Jim Ryan told Time a few months back that “when we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much.
That, and I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”
It’ll be interesting to see how that will possibly work, whether on a sort of unlocking system from the cloud (PlayStation Now at the service of BC would be the easiest idea considering how that’s done at this stage) or something completely different.
Do you think Sony should proceed with the BC function for PS5? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
