Digital Foundry has backed up recent claims that Sony is working on a new PlayStation handheld. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Sony is developing a portable console capable of playing PS5 games. He stated that the company was in the “early stages” of creating the device, which is still years away from a possible launch.
From the sound of it, it will just use PS5 OS. So probably not. But every system after PS1 other than the PS4 has had some sort of backwards compatibility.
PS3 base models were BC to PS2 (and PS1) even before they added digital-purchased emulated copies.
PS Vita has a built-in PSP that can play digital versions of those games as well as PS2 ones.
PS4 had a very limited selection of PS2 games released digitally for it.
PS5 is BC with PS4.
They could do a lot better, though. Their digital offerings are extremely limited and have yet to tackle the issue of emulating the cell processor at reasonable speeds.
If it’s backwards compatible with PSP, Vita, PS1, then I’m down. Otherwise, meh.
Chortles
From the sound of it, it will just use PS5 OS. So probably not. But every system after PS1 other than the PS4 has had some sort of backwards compatibility.
PS2 base models were BC to PS1
PS3 base models were BC to PS2 (and PS1) even before they added digital-purchased emulated copies.
PS Vita has a built-in PSP that can play digital versions of those games as well as PS2 ones.
PS4 had a very limited selection of PS2 games released digitally for it.
PS5 is BC with PS4.
They could do a lot better, though. Their digital offerings are extremely limited and have yet to tackle the issue of emulating the cell processor at reasonable speeds.