Sony is Happy With PS5 Backwards Compatibility Progress

Sony is Happy With PS5 Backwards Compatibility Progress - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2020 / 3,054 Views

Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with CNET was asked about the progress of backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 5 and if the PS5 with a disc drive will be able to play PS4 games that come on a blu-ray disc. 

Ryan said the PlayStation team is still in the process of working with publishers and developers with testing PS4 games running on the PS5. He is happy with the current progress, but it takes time as there are over 4,000 games on the PS4. 

"We said that the PS5 has been designed to play PS4 games," said Ryan. "We're going through the process with the publishers and developers testing that rather exhaustive library of over 4,000 games. We're happy with the progress that's been made."

PS5 PlayStation 5 Consoles

To compare, Microsoft has stated their next generation console, the Xbox Series X, will be backwards compatible with the Xbox One and all of the original Xbox and Xbox 360 games that currently work on the Xbox One. 

The PlayStation 5 will launch in Holiday 2020. An exact release date and launch price have yet to be announced.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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19 Comments

khotboat
khotboat (on 15 June 2020)

Good. I wanna carry over my ps4 library to ps5

  • +5
DonFerrari
DonFerrari (on 15 June 2020)

I'm not worried with it, probably all noteworthy titles will work. But they could confirm or deny the PS3, 2 and 1 BC.

  • +3
Zkuq
Zkuq (on 15 June 2020)

If they could confirm, they probably would. On the other hand, there's not much point in denying, so they won't. At least that's my take on their silence.

  • +1
DonFerrari
DonFerrari (on 15 June 2020)

It is very reasonable to expect no BC for PS1, 2 and 3 and that if they had it in the work they would have mentioned already.

  • +1
hush404
hush404 (on 15 June 2020)

Gawd I would love if they worked on even an emulator for the PS1/PS2 for the PS5. Im sure that would be totally feasible with the power of the PS5. The PS3 would be more work, but that would be wonderful to see as well. Heck, toss PSP in there too ;) Can you imagine how big having a machine that played that much history would be? *Drools.

  • +1
DonFerrari
DonFerrari (on 15 June 2020)

Sony probably make a lot of money on the PSN for the classics and PS2 remasters so that is a point they probably avoid making that BC.

  • 0
hush404
hush404 (on 16 June 2020)

@Don - They could do both. Licensing issues prevent them from touching a massive chunk of the PS1/PS2 library and it took them a fair amount of work to get those games running on newer machines in a manner you'd expect for something you pay for. The emulation route would allow them step around that, put a smile on gamers faces and the selling games method could work for fans of digital copies or people without the library of old games.

  • +1
TheMisterManGuy
TheMisterManGuy (on 15 June 2020)

That's good to hear. I missed out on the PS4 generation, so having the ability to catch up on nearly the entire PS4 catalog right out of the box will be the big thing for me regarding getting a PS5.

  • +1
John2290
John2290 (on 15 June 2020)

I'm most worried about the VR games, I'll be keeping my ps4 regardless of wheter they make strides there or not just incase.

  • 0
BraLoD
BraLoD (on 15 June 2020)

Gimme PS1 BC so I can play LoD on it too.

  • 0
Moseskyle83
Moseskyle83 (on 15 June 2020)

I must say I find it very funny when I see people thinking Sony would be stupid to add backward comp to ps1 and 2 games when you do realise they have an online subscription platform they need to promote as well

  • -1
Pemalite
Pemalite (on 15 June 2020)

Nintendo has NES and SNES games on Switch and it's locked behind their online subscription.

Not sure why you think Sony couldn't do that?
Or why Sony wouldn't put consumers first and just make it a free value-added incentive like Microsoft?

  • 0

Comments below voting threshold

Zoombael
Zoombael (on 15 June 2020)

To put this much effort into old games, making existing old games the main priority when a new generation is on the horizon, is mind boggling idiotic.

  • -10
Hiku
Hiku (on 15 June 2020)

How do you figure they're making it the 'main priority'?

  • +9
bartkuz
bartkuz (on 15 June 2020)

They didn't even talk about it in the event, it's not main priority, but it's a great feature.

  • +1
Zkuq
Zkuq (on 15 June 2020)

Backwards compatibility is a huge issue for me, up to a point where it seriously affects how much a console is worth to me. I'm probably in the minority, but putting effort into backwards compatibility is certainly not in vain either.

  • +3
Hynad
Hynad (on 15 June 2020)

What's ming boggling idiotic is how you equate “working on the BC feature” with “it's our main priority”.

  • +2
Mystro-Sama
Mystro-Sama (on 15 June 2020)

So i'm suppose to throw out all the games i've had over the years and the ones I have yet to complete upon the PS5's release just because their "old"

  • +2
hush404
hush404 (on 16 June 2020)

Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into BC. PC gamers enjoy entire companies taking older games and modernizing their installs for newer OSes, companies pour millions into remasters, remakes and the like, and the emulation scene just to enjoy the older games is massive. Obviously there's a marketable world for this.

  • 0