PS5 backwards compatibility with PS4

J

Just_one

Member
I was thinking of getting a PS5 day 1 and giving my ps4 to my nephew as a x-mas gift but it ​
i have a big doubt about ps5 backwards compatibility with ps4 .

what games will be able to be played?

i have a huge PS4 catalog and around 5 games still in my wishlist (MK11 , RE3 , Walking Dead S4, Catherine Full Body and Control). Which i was still thinking of buying now that i found the cheap prices of brasil psn compared to portugal psn.
 
It will be 99% of them...they are just saying the majority, to protect themselves when one or two games are buggy on the new system. I'm sure they will say more soon, but I wouldn't worry too much.
 
cash_longfellow said:
It will be 99% of them...they are just saying the majority, to protect themselves when one or two games are buggy on the new system. I'm sure they will say more soon, but I wouldn't worry too much.
Click to expand...

Doubtful, it's hard enough for Xbox to get all 360 games on BC due to licensing issues so I don't see how Sony will be able to just skip that entirely and get 99% of games running on the PS5.
 
LeftThumbstick said:
Doubtful, it's hard enough for Xbox to get all 360 games on BC due to licensing issues so I don't see how Sony will be able to just skip that entirely and get 99% of games running on the PS5.
Click to expand...
Because it's not going to be patches that are needed...the disk will just play the game like the ps4 does...now if we are talking upgraded games, that is different.
 
Pedro Mendes said:
if i wasnt giving my ps4 to my nephew on x-mas i wouldnt be worried thats why
Click to expand...

I think the only safe thing to say right now is wait until Sony make a clear announcement.

I mean they seem to have chosen the PS5 gpu spec at least partly to be able to achieve PS4 BC without too much technical difficulty.

But the devil is in the detail - the games you hope for might well be BC but perhaps need to be patched and that might mean not day 1 on PS5.

I think this information should come out around the preorder (price announce) time. I think that could come pretty soon now.

If you really want to jump on something now - choose the most recent release first because I'd expect newer games to be easier to get running on PS5 and therefore more likely to work day one.
 
cash_longfellow said:
Because it's not going to be patches that are needed...the disk will just play the game like the ps4 does...now if we are talking upgraded games, that is different.
Click to expand...
Do you have exact information on that? I'd like to read it. Xbox also recognised the old discs but must download from XBL to the HDD with a wrapper etc and still requires publisher permission because it's being sold on a newer platform that the licenses and agreements weren't intended for.
 
ToadMan said:
If you really want to jump on something now - choose the most recent release first because I'd expect newer games to be easier to get running on PS5 and therefore more likely to work day one.
Click to expand...

except for walking dead S4 everything in my wishlist at least seems pretty recent.

backlog are games like : AC III remastered , Rogue remastered , Ni nu kuni remastered ,no man sky , Street fighter V just to name a few
 
Pedro Mendes said:
if i wasnt giving my ps4 to my nephew on x-mas i wouldnt be worried thats why
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat...my GF's brother has never had money to get systems. He finally mowed enough lawns for the ps3... I figured I would just give him my ps4 when ps5 drops. He's a good kid and I feel bad that he is unable to get nice things because of extenuating circumstances.
 
ToadMan said:
I think the only safe thing to say right now is wait until Sony make a clear announcement.

I mean they seem to have chosen the PS5 gpu spec at least partly to be able to achieve PS4 BC without too much technical difficulty.

But the devil is in the detail - the games you hope for might well be BC but perhaps need to be patched and that might mean not day 1 on PS5.

I think this information should come out around the preorder (price announce) time. I think that could come pretty soon now.

If you really want to jump on something now - choose the most recent release first because I'd expect newer games to be easier to get running on PS5 and therefore more likely to work day one.
Click to expand...


I just want some confirmation here. Ubisoft implied both will be able to play their entire back catalog and I refuse to believe that was just a passing comment, it was clearly meant to signal you could buy and play them digitally, which hopefully means disc BC is there as well.
 
I have this plan to maintain absolute compatibility with ALL generations of my extensive Playstation library........I'm keeping all my old consoles.
 
cash_longfellow said:
I'm in the same boat...my GF's brother has never had money to get systems. He finally mowed enough lawns for the ps3... I figured I would just give him my ps4 when ps5 drops. He's a good kid and I feel bad that he is unable to get nice things because of extenuating circumstances.
Click to expand...

not the same reason as me , to me its because it will be his first console.

back to the question in hand , just made a list of my catalog :

Games i own and have yet to play or finish :
ac rogue remastered
batman arkham city remastered
bioshock collection
knack II
ni no kuni remastered
no mans sky
red dead 2
ratchet & clank
star wars fallen order
Street fighter v
division 1 and 2
titanfall 2
last guardian
walking dead S3
Far cry 3 classic edition
tearaway unfolded
dragon ball fighterz
dragon ball kakarot

psn wishlist :
Control
MK11
Catherine : Full Body
resident evil 3
a plague tale : innocence
walking dead S4

im just assumed at least this years PS+ games will somehow have backwards compatility ,
 
Pedro Mendes said:
not the same reason as me , to me its because it will be his first console.

back to the question in hand , just made a list of my catalog :

Games i own and have yet to play or finish :
ac rogue remastered
batman arkham city remastered
bioshock collection
knack II
ni no kuni remastered
no mans sky
red dead 2
ratchet & clank
star wars fallen order
Street fighter v
division 1 and 2
titanfall 2
last guardian
walking dead S3
Far cry 3 classic edition
tearaway unfolded
dragon ball fighterz
dragon ball kakarot

psn wishlist :
Control
MK11
Catherine : Full Body
resident evil 3
a plague tale : innocence
walking dead S4

im just assumed at least this years PS+ games will somehow have backwards compatility ,
Click to expand...
Either way, it's a great thing to do for someone!
 
It needs to be fully BC with PS4 or I'll be really disappointed. I think you can forgive an instance of backwards compatibility and going from Crazy Ken to Sensible Cerny is that forgiveness point.
 
The one PS2 game I occasionally want to play on my fat PS3, Wing Commander 3, is pne of the few games that don't work right in BC. Now that I think of it, I actually hacked my PS3 and I think the CFW it has comes with an emulator that enables PS2 emulation on all PS3s.... need to give that a try!
 
Pedro Mendes said:
so you guys think im safe finishing it up my wishlist? meaning i will be able to play them on a ps5?
Click to expand...
Sony isn't mandating Xbox upgrades for next gen. MK11 just realized MK11 Aftermath...

if you are getting a PS5 I would imagine that MK11 Aftermath will come out for that with some better graphics and loading times. I would wait on that game. Worst case you can get it for Black Friday cyber Monday sale.
 
The PS5 will be fully BC with all PS4 games just like the PS4 Pro. The PS5 hardware was designed to play PS4 and PS4 Pro games. That was confirmed by Mark Cerny.

blog.playstation.com

Unveiling New Details of PlayStation 5: Hardware Technical Specs [UPDATED]

Watch live for a deep dive into PS5's system architecture and how it will shape the future of games.
blog.playstation.com blog.playstation.com

With all of the amazing games in PS4's catalog, we've devoted significant efforts to enable our fans to play their favorites on PS5. We believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5.

We're expecting backward compatible titles will run at a boosted frequency on PS5 so that they can benefit from higher or more stable frame rates and potentially higher resolutions. We're currently evaluating games on a title-by-title basis to spot any issues that need adjustment from the original software developers.

In his presentation, Mark Cerny provided a snapshot into the Top 100 most-played PS4 titles, demonstrating how well our backward compatibility efforts are going. We have already tested hundreds of titles and are preparing to test thousands more as we move toward launch. We will provide updates on backward compatibility, along with much more PS5 news, in the months ahead. Stay tuned!
Click to expand...

So the only uncertainty is whether a PS4 game will have problems running in boost mode - that's going to be checked on a case by case basis.
 
LeftThumbstick said:
Doubtful, it's hard enough for Xbox to get all 360 games on BC due to licensing issues so I don't see how Sony will be able to just skip that entirely and get 99% of games running on the PS5.
Click to expand...

Sony was able to get 99% of PlayStation games to work on PlayStation 2.

Sony was able to get 99% of PS1 & PS2 games to work on early models of PS3.

The situation with playing Xbox 360 games on Xbox One was different, and went beyond mere licensing restrictions.

LeftThumbstick said:
Xbox also recognised the old discs but must download from XBL to the HDD with a wrapper etc and still requires publisher permission because it's being sold on a newer platform that the licenses and agreements weren't intended for.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, Xbox One does not actually emulate the Xbox 360. The systems have rather different architectures, so the Xbox 360 executables are recompiled into different code that the Xbox One understands. This is why you can't simply "pop in the disc and play" like you could with PS2, PS3, Wii, etc.--the system needs to download the recompiled binaries (which aren't contained on the game discs).

This is also the reason why Microsoft's approach with Xbox One is not considered true "backward compatibility"--the disc merely acts as a validation key to download a recompiled version of the game. If the recompiled code doesn't exist on Microsoft's servers, then the game won't play.

Presumably, the PS5 situation is somewhere in between the PS2/PS3 approach and the Xbox One approach, but much closer to PS2/PS3. The PS5 architecture is similar to that of PS4. Inserting a disc into the PS5 should cause the PS5 to act like a PS4, so that it copies the files directly from the disc and/or downloads whatever updates it needs from the network. Some games might have enhanced updates available for the PS5, but the game shouldn't need to be "recompiled" in order for it to work at a basic level.

The litmus test here will be to see what happens when you take a PS5 system, don't connect it to the Internet, and then stick in a game disc. Ideally, it should install the game and play in the same way that a PS4 system would.
 
Agent X said:
Sony was able to get 99% of PlayStation games to work on PlayStation 2.

Sony was able to get 99% of PS1 & PS2 games to work on early models of PS3.

The situation with playing Xbox 360 games on Xbox One was different, and went beyond mere licensing restrictions.



As I understand it, Xbox One does not actually emulate the Xbox 360. The systems have rather different architectures, so the Xbox 360 executables are recompiled into different code that the Xbox One understands. This is why you can't simply "pop in the disc and play" like you could with PS2, PS3, Wii, etc.--the system needs to download the recompiled binaries (which aren't contained on the game discs).

This is also the reason why Microsoft's approach with Xbox One is not considered true "backward compatibility"--the disc merely acts as a validation key to download a recompiled version of the game. If the recompiled code doesn't exist on Microsoft's servers, then the game won't play.

Presumably, the PS5 situation is somewhere in between the PS2/PS3 approach and the Xbox One approach, but much closer to PS2/PS3. The PS5 architecture is similar to that of PS4. Inserting a disc into the PS5 should cause the PS5 to act like a PS4, so that it copies the files directly from the disc and/or downloads whatever updates it needs from the network. Some games might have enhanced updates available for the PS5, but the game shouldn't need to be "recompiled" in order for it to work at a basic level.

The litmus test here will be to see what happens when you take a PS5 system, don't connect it to the Internet, and then stick in a game disc. Ideally, it should install the game and play in the same way that a PS4 system would.
Click to expand...
Well I don't think it's true, rather is packaged with X360 emulator, because X1 contains some special silicon part for the texture decompression of X360 format. If I recall that correctly.
 
cash_longfellow said:
It will be 99% of them...they are just saying the majority, to protect themselves when one or two games are buggy on the new system. I'm sure they will say more soon, but I wouldn't worry too much.
Click to expand...

they've had plenty of time to clarify this. Doesn't sound like it will be anywhere near what you're describing at launch, based on their silence and ambiguous wording
 
93xfan said:
they've had plenty of time to clarify this. Doesn't sound like it will be anywhere near what you're describing at launch, based on their silence and ambiguous wording
Click to expand...
I see where you are coming from, but I personally believe they would be more vocal about it if there were issues, as opposed to telling us there aren't issues.
 
cash_longfellow said:
I see where you are coming from, but I personally believe they would be more vocal about it if there were issues, as opposed to telling us there aren't issues.
Click to expand...

they are letting MS stomp all over them with the messaging, so I'd be very surprised if they have it worked outand are just being quiet about it.
 
93xfan said:
they've had plenty of time to clarify this. Doesn't sound like it will be anywhere near what you're describing at launch, based on their silence and ambiguous wording
Click to expand...

Always with this "Sony on the stand" attitude as if they were always being indicted for something and having to justify themselves or prove something or be called frauds (same thing with the hilarity around raytracing, the concern/you must be hiding gaslighting tactic by some there worked so kudos... I guess)... :). They already wrote on their blog updating their comments about PS4 BC and compatibility with thousands Of titles, but focusing their attention now with TLoU2 and GoT and launch window PS5 titles sounds quite important and what a lot of fans want to hear actually.
 
The reality is that Sony has been to vague about PS4 game support on PS5 and I personally would wait before buying anything. Here's what they said in March when they detailed the specs (pay attention to the bold):

"We recently took a look at the top 100 PS4 titles as ranked by play time, and we're expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PS5. With more than 4000 games published on PS4, we will continue the testing process and expand backwards compatibility coverage over time."

So here they say that they are expecting that most of the top 100 games (100 how? We don't know) will be playable at system launch. A few days after being destroyed by the media about it, they made an update about that particular statement and said

"With all of the amazing games in PS4's catalog, we've devoted significant efforts to enable our fans to play their favorites on PS5. We believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5. "

At first, that sounds great, that many games will be playable at launch rather than the top 100. But in the update, they never once specified anything about how many games they expect to be playable at launch or how they will go about making the games work.

So really, all we know is that before the pandemic seriously hit, they expected most of the top 100 games to be playable, and that they are planning on continuing the testing process to make more games playable. Any game released after July will be playable on PS5 (Sony is mandating this) but otherwise we are truly in the dark about how many games will be playable at launch and how long the time line is for getting more games to be playable
 
kruis said:
The PS5 will be fully BC with all PS4 games just like the PS4 Pro. The PS5 hardware was designed to play PS4 and PS4 Pro games. That was confirmed by Mark Cerny.
So the only uncertainty is whether a PS4 game will have problems running in boost mode - that's going to be checked on a case by case basis.
Click to expand...
This is what I thought. The PS5 was designed to play PS4 games natively, but boost mode is a different story. They still have to test out every game to make sure it does work in boost mode. I think the way Mark Cerny said it and the order in which he did it could have been confusing to some.
 
CerealBro1 said:
"We recently took a look at the top 100 PS4 titles as ranked by play time, and we're expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PS5. With more than 4000 games published on PS4, we will continue the testing process and expand backwards compatibility coverage over time."
Click to expand...
This is where the confusion is. He said this after saying that they worked with AMD to design the PS5 to be BC with PS4 titles. He then goes straight to boost mode talk then brings up the Top 100 titles things. I think he was referring to testing titles to see if they were in boost mode or worked in boost more. I think that's what they were testing.
 
93xfan said:
they are letting MS stomp all over them with the messaging, so I'd be very surprised if they have it worked outand are just being quiet about it.
Click to expand...
Sony:
"We said that the PS5 has been designed to play PS4 games. 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."
Click to expand...
www.theverge.com

Sony clarifies that PS5 will support ‘overwhelming majority’ of PS4 games

After the company hinted it might not support the broader library earlier this week.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

MS:


Facts are irrelevant at this point. People will see what they want to see.
 
It will be fully compatible. That's one of the main reasons for the GPU they went for. 36 compute units (PS4 was 18; Pro was 36). I believe that BC was a feature that was not in the initial scope of the console but was added later. It's not quite as "elegant" of a backwards compatibility solution as I think it painted them in a corner and forced their choice for the silicon and throttled back some potential next gen power but it will maintain 100% compatibility.
 
itsjustJEFF said:
This is where the confusion is. He said this after saying that they worked with AMD to design the PS5 to be BC with PS4 titles. He then goes straight to boost mode talk then brings up the Top 100 titles things. I think he was referring to testing titles to see if they were in boost mode or worked in boost more. I think that's what they were testing.
Click to expand...

I mean yeah I get that interpretation but at the same time this is from the Sony Playstation blog written about and to summarize the event. I can forgive Mark Cerny misspeaking about playable with boost or not, but I find it hard to believe that in a written message about Sony's brand new hardware that no one in the marketing team who approved the post said "wait a minute, we should clarify this is only about 100 titles playable at launch with boosted frequencies" and even if they missed it during the initial run of the post when they updated it they could have added that clarification but instead just made everything more vague with the clarification
 
CerealBro1 said:
I mean yeah I get that interpretation but at the same time this is from the Sony Playstation blog written about and to summarize the event. I can forgive Mark Cerny misspeaking about playable with boost or not, but I find it hard to believe that in a written message about Sony's brand new hardware that no one in the marketing team who approved the post said "wait a minute, we should clarify this is only about 100 titles playable at launch with boosted frequencies" and even if they missed it during the initial run of the post when they updated it they could have added that clarification but instead just made everything more vague with the clarification
Click to expand...
Oh I agree. I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding it completely either. I'm not confident.
 
93xfan said:
they are letting MS stomp all over them with the messaging, so I'd be very surprised if they have it worked outand are just being quiet about it.
Click to expand...
You have to understand though...Sony does not have to be loud. They sold ALOT more consoles this generation. Sony fans will buy Playstation regardless. Microsoft fans will buy Xbox regardless....Sony is quiet it works, Microsoft is loud it works. Just because a company doesn't say much doesn't mean they don't have things to say.
 
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cash_longfellow said:
You have to understand though...Sony does not have to be loud. They sold ALOT more consoles this generation. Sony fans will buy Playstation regardless. Microsoft fans will buy Xbox regardless....Sony is quiet it works, Microsoft is loud it works. Just because a company doesn't say much doesn't mean they don't have things to say.
Click to expand...

They're also silent on PS1 BC that people have been wanting for years.
They're silent on the Socom franchise
They're silent on shutting down servers for many games.

Theyre usually silent on things they don't think they need to fix.
 
93xfan said:
"happy with the progress that's been made" is not specific at all. And we don't even know how many will run at full clock speeds.
Click to expand...

This:
"A quick update on backward compatibility — With all of the amazing games in PS4's catalog, we've devoted significant efforts to enable our fans to play their favorites on PS5," Sony writes in the update text, which it posted at the top of its tech specs announcement post from two days ago. "We believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5."
Click to expand...

compared to this:



Two choices:
1) English is not your first language
2) You're selective reading based on console warzzz

Choose.

To everyone else that doesn't fall into either category. It's boilerplate legal/corporate PR statement to cover their asses since 100% compatibility is impossible to guarantee with software emulation.
 
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if the console it's launching on holiday of this year, just wait and see, Why rush it, i'm assuming that PS5s will launch before christmas.
 
93xfan said:
They're also silent on PS1 BC that people have been wanting for years.
They're silent on the Socom franchise
They're silent on shutting down servers for many games.

Theyre usually silent on things they don't think they need to fix.
Click to expand...
You can buy a ps1 for 25 dollars.
No one cares about Socom anymore, see Socom 4.
Can't keep servers alive forever when the game is dead.
 
Self High Five said:
This:


compared to this:



Two choices:
1) English is not your first language
2) You're selective reading based on console warzzz

Choose.

To everyone else that doesn't fall into either category. It's boilerplate legal/corporate PR statement to cover their asses since 100% compatibility is impossible to guarantee with software emulation.
Click to expand...

Self High Five said:
This:


compared to this:



Two choices:
1) English is not your first language
2) You're selective reading based on console warzzz

Choose.

To everyone else that doesn't fall into either category. It's boilerplate legal/corporate PR statement to cover their asses since 100% compatibility is impossible to guarantee with software emulation.
Click to expand...


One has a time frame and the other doesn't. Thousands at launch ready to go or thousands sometime, we think.

If your post wasn't meant to be ironic, give me a rough estimate of how many PS4 games will be running on PS5 at launch. Even a ballpark?
 
Pedro Mendes said:
I was thinking of getting a PS5 day 1 and giving my ps4 to my nephew as a x-mas gift but it
i have a big doubt about ps5 backwards compatibility with ps4 .

what games will be able to be played?

i have a huge PS4 catalog and around 5 games still in my wishlist (MK11 , RE3 , Walking Dead S4, Catherine Full Body and Control). Which i was still thinking of buying now that i found the cheap prices of brasil psn compared to portugal psn.
Click to expand...
Mark Cerny started it off by saying the top 100 games at launch.

Then Sony corporate chimed in later saying "up to 4000".

So when the system launches it'll be anywhere from 100-4000.
 
cash_longfellow said:
You can buy a ps1 for 25 dollars.
No one cares about Socom anymore, see Socom 4.
Can't keep servers alive forever when the game is dead.
Click to expand...

I and others are proof on here that people do care about Socom.

it's like saying no one cares about Halo In 2013 after seeing Halo 4s numbers decline. The MCC sales on Xbox and PC show a very different story to what some were saying about Halo in 2013.

Sony just needs to know how to please their fans by listening to the fan base. no one wants another Socom 4 style game, believe me.
 
Given the architecture is building on the current gen I expect them to be backwards compatible

this isn't a ps3 to ps4 scenario
 
itsjustJEFF said:
Oh I agree. I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding it completely either. I'm not confident.
Click to expand...

Yeah and I feel like that's the problem more than the actual potential issues. The fact that we cannot say one way or another what Sony actually meant by everything and several months later and also around 4 months to launch and still hasn't come out and clarified anything is worrisome to me
 
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