WolfpackN64 on 16 June 2020
| OneTime said: It's not just the power and capabilities, you also need to license IP (for example, IBM owns the Cell processor from the PS3). In any case, from Sony's point of view it's all about selling new hardware and new games, and you have to see backward compatibility in that light. So, if you want to play PS2, you are a Retro gamer, and you'll be one Ebay. Or you'll be buying your games one at a time through some equivalent of the Virtual Console App Store. Retro collecting is a pretty cool hobby anyway... |
Emulating instruction sets and architectures can be an IP pitfall, but in case of the PS1&2 that's not a problem (since they are Sony designs and the MIPS instructions are quite old) and cleanroom reverse engineered emulation of instructions is a legal grey zone, but probably safe. Also, Cell is a dead architecture, so I don't think IBM would throw a fuss at it being emulated.
