New Sony Patent Possibly Hints at Backwards Compatibility for PlayStation 5

The rumors surrounding Sony and the PlayStation 5 have been circling the gaming world for months, with many of them pointing at the possibility of backwards compatibility being featured on the future console. Of course, nothing has been confirmed as of yet, but a recent patent filed by Sony may be the best hint at the highly-requested functionality we've seen.

We've seen a handful of rumors and patents that may point to PlayStation 5 having backwards compatibility, but this one really looks like the console will contain the feature. According to the summary, the patent is for "Simulation of legacy bus operation for backward compatibility."

The description continues, "In order to deal with a problem caused by a bus operation difference when executing a legacy application with a new device, a new device emulates the bus operation of the legacy device and executes the legacy application You can adjust the bus performance when you do."

Furthermore, the patent lists Mark Cerny as one of the inventors. Cerny is known for being the lead architect on the PlayStation 4, and it is possible that he is also heading the PS5. You can check out the full patent here.

Another patent filed earlier this year also hinted at backwards compatibility. According to the report, "PS5 would be able to imitate the behavior of the previous consoles, so that the information that arrives at the different processors is returned in response to the "calls" of the games. The processor is able to detect the needs of each application and behave as if it were the original "brain" of each machine, cheating the software. This technology does not prevent PS5 could also have additional processors to have compatibility with machines whose architecture is difficult to replicate, as in the case of PS2."

That said, it is still not confirmed that the PlayStation 5 will feature backwards compatibility, but with all of the patents and even analysts pointing to yes, there is a decent chance that we will see it happen. Until then, you may want to keep the salt handy, just in case.

What do you think of the latest patent to appear from Sony? Do you believe the PS5 will have backwards compatibility? Sound off in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!

Thanks, Gearnuke!