PS5 sleek backward compatibility could be supported by cloud power to challenge its rival.
While Microsoft’s next-gen console seems to be offering comprehensive various generation-spanning backward compatibility, the PS5’s support for older games appears to be more constrained. However, a Sony patent has indicated that PS1, PS2, and PS3 support could be delivered on the PS5 via cloud power. Here is what you need to know.
PS5’s Cloud Power Might Arrive as the Best Feature Ever
Found by Twitter user Renka_schedule and flagged by IGN, Sony’s patent shows older PS hardware could be put into servers and utilized to support a “cloud gaming library” of older games. Such a thing would mean emulating older consoles virtual machine “that simulates the operating system associated with each game console.”
Following the cloud-powered subject would enable Sony to introduce comprehensive backward compatibility to the PS5 without putting it in at the hardware level. There’s also a chance that this could then avoid a functionality that some PS gamers might not use; as much as backward compatibility is a great-to-have, we expect some people to be more focused on newer game titles on the next-gen consoles.
It’s worth noting that Sony already provides a cloud-powered streaming service, known as PlayStation Now, which lets PS2, PS3, and PS4 games to be streamed to PS4 and PCs; we can download some PS Now game titles on the PS4, too. So, it’s arguably not a significant step for Sony to expand this for its next-gen console, though it would mean bringing the PS1 game support into the story.
Renka_schedule also indicated that another patent has details about how users of the backward compatibility streaming functionality will then be able to record and share their gameplay via the cloud. It would be very easy to see how such a tool would work with the “Create” button on the PS5’s DualSense controller.
