When Sony rolls out its PlayStation Cloud service on the PlayStation 4 later this year, you might see some new content in your favourite classic games. A newly revealed Sony patent indicates that Sony is planning introduce new content into emulated games, including those emulated and streamed by Gaikai.

The patent is formally called “Suspending State of Cloud-Based Legacy Applications.” It allows Sony to add triggers or checkpoints into past-gen games that are streamed through the cloud to be paused while new content is streamed to the player rather than the original content.

For example, Sony could use this technology to alter a mission or level or add or alter a minigame (I would recommend swapping FFX-2’s Blitzball Manager for proper FFX Blitzball). It has also been suggested that Sony is using this patent as a means of introducing achievements/Trophies into legacy PlayStation games.

While the patent was published last week by the US Patent and Trademark Office, it was originally filed on June 29, 2012. That date is just two days before Sony announced their acquisition of the Gaikai game streaming service which will form the backbone of the PlayStation Cloud service.

I’d like to give an opinion of this patent but I don’t know if it will be implemented let alone how it will be implemented by Sony and the various developers whose games will be on PlayStation Cloud. I don’t like the idea of changing old games. We’ll be playing old games on PS Cloud in order to play those old games. I doubt that too many major changes will be made but I’m not too keen on any changes being made. Apparently “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” isn’t in the lexicon of any of the console manufacturers.

Source: IGN