With the release of the revised PlayStation Plus and its collection of classic games, a lot of attention has been paid to the PS3-shaped hole in the library. A new patent suggests that Sony is still looking for ways to address the gap.
As Game Rant reported, Sony Interactive Entertainment released a new patent on June 14 called “Systems and Methods for Converting Inherited Code to Updated Code.” The patent details an emulation system for video games that would track with a renewed push to make PS3 games run smoothly with modern hardware. However, the section of the patent that remained in Game Rant was the inclusion of a diagram that represented how old PlayStation peripherals like EyeToy or PSP Go could also be emulated.
Patents like this are filed all the time and may never come to fruition. However, it is interesting that emulation at this level is in the mind of PlayStation. Why bother worrying about getting a technology that, in some cases, has been working on newer platforms for decades? Remember it was Sony’s decision to put the PS3 emulation on the PS5 in the basket too hard. As Leah commented in her article on the situation at the time, much of this decision was motivated by the Byzantine development systems of the PS3. It was hard to make games for the PS3, it was hard to get them to run smoothly, and as a result, even emulating them in modern hardware can be a challenge. If it were to throw the hardware at the problem, you might think the PS5 would be more than up to par.
As Sony increasingly uses its legacy library to power the PlayStation Plus Classics-hungry beast, it could be trying to avoid storage and memory card-related issues. Before internal storage became a standard feature in the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, video game consoles still sold external storage cards as a complement. It’s a long way off, but that would be a way to start getting ahead of this problem if it gets up.
I’m sure some of you read this muttering something with the effect of “They’re probably trying to get the damn motion controllers to work, God help us.” And … yes, they raised them.
Half the people who read this, probably. Image: Yakuza, Sega
At first I thought the inclusion of Move drivers could be due to their connection to the original PlayStation VR headphones. However, the headphones do not appear in the diagram mentioned above, suggesting that Sony may have other ideas about integration. We may not have gotten rid of the damn things yet, but there are certain Move / Kinect era games that just won’t work without them.
I know, I know. Image: Yakuza, Sega
With that, you’re done. What is Sony’s game here? What PS3 games are you desperate to see among the PlayStation Plus Classics games? Sound the comments below.