What you need to know
- 99% of PS4 games will be backward compatible on PS5 according to Sony.
- Your library of titles will automatically show up once you log in.
- You can buy a PS5 now ahead of its release on November 12, 2020.
We've known for several months that the PS5 is backward compatible with PS4 games, but cagey responses and half answers from Sony led to a lot of confusion surrounding the state of backward compatibility on PS5. According to Sony, who reaffirmed its commitment to PS5 backward compatibility 99% of PS4 games will work on PS5.
Sony Senior Vice President of Platform Planning and Management Hideaki Nishino confirmed this to Game Informer, quelling any fears otherwise. In addition, your library of PS4 games will automatically show up on PS5 once you login to your account.
Approximately 99 percent of the thousands of PS4 titles, both catalog and newly published, will be playable on PS5, and we're excited about supporting our PlayStation community as they transition from PS4 to PS5 when they're ready.
Despite this, Sony still wants to focus on looking ahead in the years to come, and it plans on differentiating itself from Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S with its exclusives.
"Our creators at SIE Worldwide Studios take pride in challenging themselves to delight PlayStation fans with new experiences that push past player expectations for what games can be – that will only continue on PS5," Nishino said. "The lineup of exclusive games from Worldwide Studios at launch and beyond is by far the strongest that we've ever had on a new console. Launching PS5 with games like Marvel's Spider-Man and Demon's Souls is just the beginning. Fans can look forward to Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and more, as well as the new God of War title we teased in our September event. Exclusivity is a key differentiator for us, but we also believe quality of games is an even more important criteria. And when we look at Worldwide Studios, the quality of their work really shines through in each individual game, and I think that's what speaks most to our fans as well."
Hopefully this helps assuage concerns for anyone with a large preexisting games library on PS4. The PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition release on November 12, 2020 for $499 and $399, respectively.
Get your hands on it before it sells out
PS5 is the place to be for exclusives like Spider-Man and Horizon Forbidden West. Get yours before they sell out. The standard PS5 boasts a disc drive so that you can play 4K Blue-ray DVDs and use your physical PS4 games through backward combability. This comes at a higher price tag than the Digital Edition.
