PS5 Will Only Be Backward Compatible With PS4 Games, According To Ubisoft

PS5 Will Only Be Backward Compatible With PS4 Games, According To Ubisoft

A new support page about the transition to next-gen consoles over on Ubisoft’s website appears to confirm that PS3, PS2, and PS1 games will not be backward compatible on PS5.

“Backwards compatibility will be available for supported PlayStation 4 titles, but will not be possible for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, or PlayStation games,” the support page states. While Sony has previously said that PS5 will be backward compatible with PS4 games, it’s never officially said whether any games from past PlayStation consoles will work on the new hardware.

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[referenced id=”944483″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/07/everything-we-know-about-the-playstation-5/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/07/31/ifagxcylbhxto1gpzc5k-300×169.jpg” title=”Everything We Know About The PlayStation 5″ excerpt=”In June, during an 85-minute event called “The Future of Gaming,” Sony finally revealed the PlayStation 5. Between the presenters who may not have been human, we got a thorough look at plenty of video games (and some technical stuff, too). The info feed surrounding the PS5 has been a slow drip, but, several months ahead of its “holiday 2020” launch, a clear picture is starting to shape up. Here’s everything we know about the PlayStation 5.”]

PS5 backward compatibility with the PS4 was confirmed when Wired first revealed information about the new console last year. But we haven’t heard a whole lot of details since, and what Sony has said has been a bit vague. During a March presentation by Mark Cerny, the hardware designer said that PS4 games running on the PS5 would play at a boosted frequency that would allow them to enjoy advantages like faster load times. Shortly after the presentation, Sony put up a subsequent blog post saying that “almost all” of the 100 top-played PS4 games would be backward compatible at launch.

This made it sound like not all, or even a majority of PS4 games, will be playable on PS5 when the console first arrives. “We believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5,” Sony later wrote in an update to the blog post, further obscuring the exact timeline for full PS4 to PS5 backward compatibility. Microsoft has also been somewhat cagey about the exact timeline for Xbox Series X backward compatibility, but confirmed in May that “thousands of games” from across the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One libraries will work on Series X at launch. Some people (like myself) were holding out hope that Sony might be working on similar, legacy backward compatibility for the PS5. If the Ubisoft support page is accurate it sounds like that’s not in the cards.

The PS4 isn’t backward compatible with PS3, PS2, or PS1 either, and was the first Sony console to ditch that capability completely. It does have PlayStation Now, though, which lets you stream certain PS3 games to the PS4. Sony hasn’t yet commented on how PlayStation Now will work on PS5, either. It’s always possible the Netflix-like games service could be expanded to include games from PS2 and PS1 as well.

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