What A Remastering Engine Could Mean for PS5 | Game Rant
Rumors of a PS5 engine dedicated entirely to remastering and upscaling games from previous generations initially started when online personality HipHopGamer announced during a stream of his that he had gathered from a source the existence of the engine and its capabilities. The rumored engine is reportedly going to be used in order to properly allow games, from the PS1 era through the PS4 era, on the upcoming PS5, which is significant for Sony and PlayStation consumers for a number of reasons. The engine would potentially allow users to insert older game discs and play an updated version of the game.
As it currently stands, the PS4 has no way of natively playing games from previous PlayStation generations through its own hardware. Instead, Sony has frequently touted PlayStation Now, its monthly subscription game streaming service, as a way to circumvent the compatibility issue. Although a bunch of PS4 games are downloadable to play, the back catalog of previous generations must be streamed. In hindsight, it seems clear that Sony never planned on equipping the PS4 with the capability to play older game discs, which is unfortunate for people with large PS2 collections for example.
Though it is unclear why PS1 and PS2 game discs are unplayable on the PS4, there is at least some explanation behind the lack of PS3 compatibility. The PS3 was notoriously one of the most difficult machines to develop a game for, according to the countless developers that made games for the console. Though the machine could sometimes yield incredible results (a look at any of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted games shows some of those results), many third party developers found it jarring compared to the easier creator’s environment that the Xbox 360’s architecture allowed for.
If the rumors of the remastering engine are true, then this could be huge news for fans of PS3 games looking to purchase a PS5 when it launches later this year. The reasons behind the PS4’s lackability in playing PS3 games are somewhat clear, at least compared to the reasons behind the missing PS1 and PS2 features. A remastering engine could alleviate some of the burden of translating a PS3 game into the modern era.
First of all, it could allow a developer, such as Sony’s internal departments in this case, to have easier access to work on a given PS3 title so that it could then be upscaled and remastered for the PS5. Interestingly, this operation could work similarly to how Sony handled the PS3’s backward compatibility on its first two models that were released in 2006. The 20 gigabyte and 60 gigabyte PS3 launch models were the only mainline PS3 consoles to offer hardware-based backward compatibility. Some future models, such as the 40 gigabyte model that had fewer physical features, supported backward compatibility via software emulation.
The two methods of emulation resulted in a number of issues that appeared throughout PS1 and PS2 games being played on a PS3 and Sony created a website that kept a detailed record of these glitches (for example, frame rate issues with Metal Gear Solid 3) for consumers to be aware of. If similar issues arise for this rumored PS5 engine, then fans could look forward to another similar website.
The remastering engine has another interesting implication to it. The fate of future remasters could very well be decided on whether or not this rumor is true. Remasters like Uncharted The Nathan Drake Collection and The God of War Collection were made to capitalize on a lack of backward compatibility on the PS4 and PS3 (the later models at least). If this new engine simply brings old games up to a new level, then remaster developers like Bluepoint Games would have to move on to something else.
Speaking of which, there was in interesting string of rumors on the Reddit thread of the engine that suggested that Bluepoint, the famous studio behind the two remasters mentioned above, is behind this engine. The great and big project that it has been teasing could be an engine that upscales and makes playable, all previous PlayStation games, according to that thread. However, even though the Bluepoint engine has proven valuable to them, it is more than likely that Bluepoint is simply excited to be working on a new original IP rather than a piece of technology.
The PS5 is scheduled to launch holiday 2020.
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