One of the big bullet points that Sony is touting for the PlayStation 5 is its backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 games. The latter console missed out on this feature after all. However, it seems that PlayStation 5 backward compatibility may not cover the complete PlayStation 4 library. At least, currently in its pre-release state.
A Sony representative revealed in a recent Famitsu article that the team still hasn’t implemented the feature completely and is still trying to get every PS4 game up and running on the PS5. This leaves the possibility that some PlayStation 4 games may be stranded on the console when its successor drops.
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“Currently, the dev team is putting all power on verifying whether they can secure a complete compatibility,” stated the rep (translated by Twitter user @BlackKite). “Please wait for more information.”
Now, the statement itself does indicate that Sony’s team is working to try to get “complete compatibility,” so there’s a chance that the PlayStation 5 will play all PlayStation 4 games at launch. Of course, Sony has been a similar situations before. Even the vaunted PlayStation 2 had a number of PlayStation games that didn’t work on it. Now, the latter list itself changed over time as Sony released further PlayStation 2 models. With today’s online enabled consoles however, it could be that Sony could simply patch support for the PlayStation 4 games that don’t work on PlayStation 5 later on. Xbox owners may be familiar with this as this is how Microsoft enabled backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games on the system.
With this in mind, many fans were excited when Sony confirmed that the upcoming PlayStation 5 would see the return of the feature. The PlayStation brand has had a mixed history when it comes to backwards compatibility. While the PlayStation 2 featured it, it’s successor, the PlayStation 3 slowly phased the feature out after a few console revisions. The PlayStation 4 on the other hand, did not feature backwards compatibility at all thanks to its move to a new, x86 based architecture.
