Sony Interactive Entertainment is working on something called «Remastering by Emulation.» This could mark the end of physical remastered games on PS5 backward compatibility.
What is going on with PS5? There is plenty of news coming out but we don’t know for sure what Sony’s plans are. But whatever its plans are it does, for sure, including backward compatibility. Sony has filed a patent for an emulation program that lets PS5 enjoy the benefits of backward compatibility.
Sony calls it “Remastering By Emulation,” a fancy name but it does the job. What’s really interesting about the title is the part where Sony mentions remastering. It is an indication that Sony may use backward compatibility through emulation to release remastered games, instead of direct ports. We may experience enhanced visuals, better audio quality, texture, and more.
PS5 is likely to support a native 4K resolution which means a proper PS4 remaster would require high-res textures that compliment its 4K resolution. Since the world is moving on to digital downloads, it makes to not release physical copies of remastered games.
PlayStation 5 is expected to use backward compatibility to remaster PS4, PS2, and PS1 games. As for PS3 games, the remasterer by emulation depends on how the developers are able to deal with its complicated Cell Architecture. PS4 couldn’t handle it that well but PS5 backward compatibility seems to be sophisticated enough to tackle the Cell Architecture.
Backward compatibility depends on hardware power and architecture. Mark Cerny, the creator of PS4, is again at the helm of the project.
Earlier this year, Sony sent devkits to PlayStation developers. Rumor has it that the console was discussed behind closed doors at Devcon 2018. Nothing leaked due to a strict NDA.
All things make us wonder when is PS5 launching? Most analysts predict a 2020 release date for PS5 but a lot of pieces are moving into place pointing to an announcement in 2019. E3 is where things are expected to go down.
E3 2019 is scheduled for June of next year in LA but it may not be held at the LA convention center this year. Sony, Microsoft, and other companies have complained about the lack of space. They haven’t made any notable upgrades to the convention center.
