A new patent has surfaced where PlayStation Trophies will be awarded for older games running on emulation software. Now, unless Sony suddenly changes tack and allows people to play PlayStation games via emulation, this is somehow tied to backwards compatibility.
The filing (which was applied on November 30, 2020 and was published last week) over on Patentscope states the following:
A computer-implemented method assigns one or more trophies to a user. A game is emulated in response to a request from a client device. A trophy trigger is detected during emulation of the game by comparing a memory value of the emulated game to a predetermined value and assigning the one or more trophies to the user based on the detected trophy trigger
The patent goes on to describe this as method of implementing trophies into previously released games that have no trophies, without actually modifying the software itself. For example, PS2 games previously released on PS4 that have trophies are essentially native console ports for the system, thus the reason they still work on PS5.
However, some older PS2 titles, say from the PS3, are still the original versions that released on PS2. Because of this, they lack trophy support of any kind and adding them would require the game to be modified, thus creating a “native” port for the newer console. This patent seems to be looking into a way around that, adding these trophies via network or software emulation, thus keeping the original game code intact.
https://mp1st.com/news/sony-patents-awa ... lder-gamesPlayStation Now seems like the most likely implementation of classic titles.
I don't mind purchasing older titles again specifically if they've had work done (currently playing Rez for example as part of Sony's free give-away and I can't for the life of me think why you'd ever want to now play the Dreamcast or PS2 versions ever again), but most of the time these old titles just aren't up to scratch, with emulation used as a way to get you to buy a game you already own because the disc doesn't work on the current system. Take something like Jak and Daxter - the one currently available to purchase on PS4/5 is worse than the PS3 and PS2 versions. And if you purchased the PS2 and 3 copies of the game, that doesn't then work on the PS4 or 5. It's a complete fudge compared to Microsoft.