Sony has filed a patent called "Suspending State of Cloud-based Legacy Applications," which allows one to add new content into an emulated game without having to rework the game's code.
The patent's abstract provides a detailed summary as to exactly what this might mean for the future of Sony's cloud-based platform. Warning: it is a bit of a mouthful.
A snapshot of an emulated game may be generated by a snapshot generator. At some point during the emulation of the emulated game, a snapshot generator delivers a suspension request to an emulator. Once the suspension request is received, the emulator will suspend the emulated title. The emulator generates a snapshot of the emulated game by recording the current state of all devices being emulated. The snapshot is then delivered to the snapshot generator. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
So what does this mean? Well for one, this could allow Sony to rework some of its older titles and deliver fresh, slightly tweaked experiences of its legacy library via Gaikai. That said, companies file patents all the time, many of which are never fully realized. As such, we'll just have to wait and see if this materializes into anything at all.
[Via NeoGAF]
