A patent submitted by Sony would allow players to unlock trophies on emulated PlayStation titles that previously did not have the console family's achievements when they initially released. While console players were first introduced to unlockable achievements with the release of the Xbox 360 in 2005, it was a few years later when Sony introduced the trophy system for the PlayStation 3 in 2008, two years after the initial release of the console in 2006.
Although the Sony's patented feature is not a new concept - something similar has been offered by the RetroAchievements community since 2012 - the filing by Sony could be hinting at something else in the works, as it comes mere days after the announcement of the closure of the PS3, PS Vita and PSP online stores. While all games published on the Xbox 360 were required to contain achievements from day one, trophies only became mandatory for games released on the PS3 from 2009 onwards. Games released on PS1, PS2, and PlayStation Classic (as well as the 275 PS3 titles released before the introduction of trophies) did not feature achievements for players to unlock. Despite this, there’s definitely no shortage of trophies available, as there are currently over 10,000 PlayStation games that do contain them.
As published on PatentScope, a patent by Sony details a system where trophies will be unlocked for players after a system checks that all conditions are met for the corresponding achievement in an emulated game’s memory. The patent provides an easier way to retroactively add trophies to games which do not contain achievements. This was not a simple task for developers previously, as adding trophies required modifying the game itself and for a lot of older game titles, the studios may no longer exist. Due to the time and effort required, for many developers, this was simply not worth the money or effort spent to go back and add the feature.
With the patent published only days after the announcement of the closure of the PS3, PSP and PS Vita online stores later this year, it's not clear if Sony is planning on using the patent to add emulated games with new achievements to the PlayStation Now service. This would also mean that players would still be able to access digital-only titles that are PlayStation exclusives, such as those that would have otherwise been lost to those who did not already own them after the planned closure of the three online stores.
Although the patent has been filed, this does not necessarily mean that Sony will go on to utilize it. If the feature was indeed implemented on PS Now, it would make the service a pretty tough competitor for the current offerings on the Xbox Game Pass. While the new generation Xbox Series X/S is backwards compatible with a wide library of previous Xbox system games, the PS5 is only backwards compatible with PS4, something that some Sony fans were understandably upset to hear during the console's announcement. The possibility of allowing players to access emulated PS1, PS2 and PS3 games would also mean that the Xbox Series X/S no longer has a feature advantage over the PS5. PlayStation fans would no doubt be excited to be able to replay or get into older titles they couldn't access before, with new achievements to boot. Exciting as the prospect may be, fans will unfortunately have to settle for the achievements that are currently available until Sony decides otherwise.
Source: PatentScope