Sony Files New Patent Amid Reports of PS3 Backward Compatibility For PS5

See full bio

Abdullah Waseem

At T4G, my task is to cover the latest news around the gaming globe ASAP and with the utmost precision. I adore all the games and respect all the devs behind the amazing games that we get all year. So, whether it’s a PC or a Console game, I got it all covered. 

See full bio

At this point, the PS3 backward compatibility for PS5 seems more likely than ever. The news has been a part of the rumor mill ever since last week. Now, Sony has filed a patent that further points to backward compatibility.

Why it matters: The Xbox Series S|X have supported backward compatibility for Xbox 360 ever since launch. The PS5 was criticized for not doing the same with the PS3, but now it seems that Sony is ramping up preservation efforts.

The feature was first hinted at by Nick Baker and was later corroborated by Jeff Grubb.

The patent hints at Sony basically attempting to run PS3 games on PS5 using software emulation for native gameplay. Since this patent has been filed by Mark Cerny, PS5’s hardware architect, there’s reason for fans to be excited here.

It will attempt to test software that induces skew to the PS5. The software is necessary because the PS3’s chip worked quite differently from today’s x86 architecture.

The PS3 has an asymmetrical cell processor that was very notorious for making it difficult to develop games. With the cell processor, each core had a separate job, instead of all cores working together for one task like they do on the PS5.

So, Sony will attempt to bypass the hurdle with skew and run PS3 games natively on the latest console. While the earlier reports were mostly leaks, this new patent, filed by Sony itself, seems to be the most concrete piece of evidence so far.

PlayStation also established a preservation team for backward compatibility efforts in the past. 

The PS3 had some incredible games that were never made available for the current-generation consoles. These include GTA 4, Killzone 3, Infamous 2, and more. However, you can currently play such titles on PS5 through cloud gaming.

While this leads to a less-than-ideal experience, cloud gaming is the best that gamers can find for now.

Abdullah Waseem

News Reporter

Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.