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Sony Interactive Entertainment has registered a patent for a PlayStation cartridge, sparking speculation that the PlayStation 5 may install and play games very differently to its forebear (via WccfTech).
Spotted by LetsGoDigital, this cartridge patent has been registered at Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI) in Brazil. Local firm Kasznar Leonardos was used as the intellectual property agent. Yujin Morisawa, senior art director at the Corporate Design Center of Sony Interactive Entertainment, is the mind behind the design. He’s worked with Sony for over a decade and invented contraptions from a humble controller to the Agent Robot.
If you’re not a hardware die-hard, those previous sentences may appear to be dry and dull information. But, everything that was rumoured about the PlayStation 5 and then confirmed by Sony Interactive Entertainment materialised in the very same way. Its patent is the work of Morisawa, it was submitted to the INPI, then it was discovered by LetsGoDigital. So, this cartridge patent is looking like a very likely candidate for Sony’s next-generation project.
Or, is it? We know that the PlayStation 5 will have a disc drive that will read triple-layered discs to generate stunning 4K visuals for physical games and Blu-ray DVDs. We also know that installations will be chopped up, allowing a player to install the single-player campaign and leave the multiplayer modes for later to save space on a significantly whizzy solid-state drive. The last time Sony used a cartridge was for the PlayStation Vita. And, the company has plainly stated it isn’t interested in a successor to its portable PlayStation. It’s kind of weird that it would include a link to the past on its super souped-up PlayStation 5.
There’s a theory that this cartridge patent isn’t for the PlayStation. Tweak Town reminded us that Sony filed a cartridge patent in 2017 that was brought to light in 2018. That cartridge wasn’t for a new portable console; it was for the Sony Toio, a children’s toy. It is theoretically possible that the most recent cartridge patent is destined for the PlayStation chain of hardware, but there’s a saying about being fooled twice in a row, or something.
