Backward compatibility will be a big part of the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X battle, and the good news is that both parties are clearly on board. We know the Xbox Series X will run on almost every Xbox One game, but Sony has been a bit more cagey about the PS5’s capabilities only in that it “believes” that “the vast majority of the 4000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5 “.
But if popular streamer Lance McDonald is correct, it looks like the PS5 will run every PS4 game. It just can not run them well.
In a deleted tweet recorded by ResetEra, the streamer wrote: “There has been some confusion about this in the past and I can delete it now. The PlayStation 5 can run all PlayStation 4 games without whitelisting per game. Sony continues [sic.] to test titles, but the system will not prevent you from launching untested games. ”
Assuming it stays that way at launch – a big assumption for reasons I’ll touch on in a minute – that would be quite a big deal. Sony would essentially leave people to figure out if the games work as expected without additional patches. This is in stark contrast to how the Xbox One currently handles Xbox 360 games: only pre-approved games that are certified to work can be played.
McDonald justified the deletion with another tweet … which is now also being deleted. “I deleted a tweet out of respect for the platformer. Feel free to interpret that as you like.”
PS5 backwards compatibility: A work in progress
So this will be how backwards compatibility works on PS5 when it launches later this year? That’s how it appears at the moment, assuming McDonald not only pulls our collective paw, but seeing as the PS5 is not out yet, it’s also possible that this is exactly how things are on pre-release hardware. Which would make sense, given Sony has said it is in the process of testing thousands of games.
It is quite possible that Sony will decide to release the PS5 to run whitelisted games only upon release, and there are pros and cons to this approach. In the process column, you are (virtually) guaranteed that everything you start will not have a game-breaking break in 30 hours.
In consumption, of course, is the fact that Sony and its partners would get dictation as to which games will work and which will not. And while Sony has stated that “almost all” of the top 100 PS4 titles will be available by Playtime at launch, your favorite niche indie game may not be – even if it works without problems.
Time will tell. We have no PS5 release date in sight yet, but we expect to find that in the near future, along with the possible price and pre-order info.
