The rumored PlayStation handheld will support full backward compatibility with PS5 games that make mandatory use of ray tracing, it is claimed.
During the latest episode of Broken Silicon, known hardware insider and content creator Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID) revealed details from a leaked internal document from Sony Interactive Entertainment, describing its unannounced PlayStation handheld’s architecture and feature set. According to him, the portable device is built around a custom APU codenamed “Kanes,” and the documentation explicitly references “backwards compatibility support” for both PS4 and PS5 titles. ”They explicitly say it runs PS6, PS5, and PS4 games,” he said.
The leaked document also mentions ray tracing support with backward compatibility to PS5, suggesting that the PlayStation handheld will be capable of running games where RT features cannot be fully disabled. PS4 titles are also said to be fully backward compatible on the unannounced portable device. The document also references “RDNA5 Area Optimizations” and “Low Power Media Playback,” indicating that Sony Interactive Entertainment is focusing heavily on efficiency in order to meet regulatory standards in regions such as the EU while maintaining the intended performance.
MLID noted that maintaining access to a player’s existing library is essentially non-negotiable in this day and age, especially when competing with platforms that embrace backward compatibility. Sony Interactive Entertainment undoubtedly aims to ensure that users can seamlessly transition their game libraries to both the PS5 and its new handheld without friction.
The hardware insider further claimed that developers are already working with “different assets and textures for low power mode” in current PS5 games, indicating that optimization for the handheld is being taken into account well ahead of its launch.
During an earlier episode, MLID shared an estimate for the retail price of the PS6 as well as the PlayStation handheld. Read about it here.
