I admit it: I love me some PlayStation Network Trophies. And one thing that’s always frustrated me is the lack of Trophy support on PSone and PS2 Classics, as well as older pre-Trophy PS3 games like Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword and Folklore. But a new, recently-filed Sony patent application may solve this problem.

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A method and apparatus for adding trophy support [to] games that do not have trophies without modifying the original game. The method and apparatus are used to detect particular disk access, use the detected disk access as potential trophy triggers in games, and recognize the triggers while a game is played. Trophies are awarded based on the triggers, and the awarded trophies are stored.

Sony has filed a patent application (via NeoGAF ) with the following abstract:What does that mean? It’s simple. Games that don’t inherently support Trophies can -- with the technology behind this patent -- be remotely patched without ever having to alter the original title. What holds many companies back from going back to patch old games for Trophies is the cost of doing so, not only with internal resources, but because the game must be recertified thereafter, which costs extra cash.You can see the full 12 page patent application here

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.