Sony PlayStation 5: will backwards compatibility be a major feature?

[HEXUS]

A recent Sony patent suggests for 'processor ID spoofing' suggests it could be.

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[Platinum]

Why would they need it unless they are going with something other than AMD for the APU?

[globalwarning]

That's a whole lot of suggesting, in the title...

[ultrasbm]

Why would they need it unless they are going with something other than AMD for the APU?

I imagine PS4 compatibility will be very simple (relatively speaking of course!), but PS3, PS2 and PS1 will need to be emulated as they're using different architectures.

[Luke7]

Why would they need it unless they are going with something other than AMD for the APU?

because they are highly customised APUs... Just because two generations are made by the same provider does not mean they would be remotely compatible. That is like saying XboxOne games should work on PS4 because they are both AMD APUs...

[Usernamist]

Why would they need it unless they are going with something other than AMD for the APU?

because they are highly customised APUs... Just because two generations are made by the same provider does not mean they would be remotely compatible. That is like saying XboxOne games should work on PS4 because they are both AMD APUs...

They definitely could, hardware isn't the limiting factor lmao

[Tabbykatze]

If they have backwards compatibility it means those whom are beholden to their big libraries will be more likely to upgrade if their existing purchases aren't immediately invalidated.

[OilSheikh]

Will Time Crisis be backwards compatible ?

[simonpreston]

because they are highly customised APUs... Just because two generations are made by the same provider does not mean they would be remotely compatible. That is like saying XboxOne games should work on PS4 because they are both AMD APUs...

It's not like that at all. It's quite likely that PS5 will be based on similar hardware to the PS4 (looks like the days of fancy custom chips are over). If that's the case, it's extremely likely that the APIs for the PS5 will be based off the the APIs for the PS4. Backwards compatibility will be a breeze, between those machines. PS3 and PS2 emulation is a different kettle of fish. They have complex custom chips that need calls to be intercepted and translated. PCSX2 is the most complete PS2 emulator, I know, and even that doesn't always get it right, on powerful hardware (Virtua Fighter 4 has noticeable slowdown on my Ryzen 1700 with Radeon 580). PS3 has, a NVidia based graphics chip, although that may have very different APIs to the PS4, but the Cell processor is also a very complicated beast to emulate.

You could, in theory, put a Cell CPU inside a PS5 and use it as a co-processor for other, more menial tasks, but then use it as the main CPU to run PS3 games. That'd remove the need for the PS5's main CPU to emulate the Cell. After all, the PS2 did something similar and used the PS1 CPU as an IO processor; utilising it to run the PS1 games. But a lot of that depends on if they'd continue to be produced, and the cost of a CPU.

But PS5 emulating PS4 IF based off same hardware, will be a doddle.

[Jace007]

I bet it cant play Crysis? as its going to have a AMD CPU & GPU i would expect it to be backwards compatible with the PS4. i really dislike playing older games Once you've played them thats it you move on. unless its like really really good. i can understand if you have a large collection of games you've spent alot of money on and would like to play them again.