A patent application uncovered by Sony PlayStation boss Mark Cerny has left many gamers hopeful that a fix for the PS5’s backward compatibility issues might be on the way.

The filing, which was filed last year but updated this month, lists Cerny, the lead designer of the PS5, as the inventor and suggests wider backward compatibility might be possible. Namely by mimicking older console hardware by altering processor clock speeds.

Spotted by Shaun McIlroy on Twitter, the file is named “backwards compatibility through the use of a falsified clock and precise gain frequency control”, but it’s pretty short on additional details.

It’s unclear if Sony is actively working on a solution that would allow game owners from older generations of PlayStation to reuse their older titles on the PS5 console.

Right now, you can insert the vast majority of PS4 game discs into the PS5 and play them natively. It is also possible to move games and game data from a PS4 console to the PS5 using Wi-Fi data transfer or using a compatible USB storage drive that you may be using with a PS4.

It’s possible that this proposed upgrade has something to do with the planned overhaul of the PlayStation Now streaming service which currently lags far behind Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass alternative.

If Sony found a way to help PS5 hardware convert games from the PS1, PS2, and PS3 eras, there could be an opportunity to provide a much more robust opportunity for gamers to enjoy PlayStation archives on their PS5 console much more.

Also, we probably shouldn’t expect too much here. As Push Square points out in its report, Sony has updated this patent every two years since 2015.