Sony confirms the PS5 will NOT be backwards compatible with PS1, PS2 or PS3 games, will have 99% compatibility with PS4

[Master Disaster]

Coming straight out of the horses mouth, Sony's own Jim Ryan has confirmed all the details about the systems backwards compatibility.

 

Its good news on the Playstation 4 front.

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Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO Jim Ryan was interviewed by Famitsu shortly after the PlayStation 5 Showcase, where he talked a lot about the PS5; including its backwards compatibility feature with older consoles, like the PS4 and PS3.

 

In the Japanese interview, Jim Ryan mentioned that the PlayStation 5 will have a 99% compatibility with all PlayStation 4 titles, after the development team had tested and checked all released games. He also mentioned the PlayStation Plus Collection that lets PS5 owners play select famous PS4 games for free, such as Persona 5, Monster Hunter: World, and Mortal Kombat X.

However for older Sony systems the news is much bleaker. He confirmed that the team just didn't have the time to work on BC for older titles and that they simply will not be supported.

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However, when asked about the PS5 backwards compatibility with PS3 and older games, Jim Ryan ultimately concluded that the team did not have enough time to work on that. You can read our translation of the snippet right below:

Famitsu: We were also surprised when we heard that it will have 99% compatibility with PS4 titles. By the way, will there be compatibility with PS1, PS2, and PS3 titles?

 

Jim Ryan: We keep in mind the engineering specialized for the PS5, as we produced the device. In the midst of that, the PS4 already has 100 million players; we thought they ought to want to play PS4 titles on the PS5 as well indeed, so we included compatibility with the PS4. While implementing that, we also focused our efforts on taking in the high-speed SSD and the new controller DualSense at the same time. So, unfortunately, we couldn’t reach the implementation of such compatibilities.

This provides confirmation of the rumours that started after Ubisoft updated one of their webpages in August and seemed to indicate this would be the case.

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This statement from SIE’s CEO Jim Ryan gives further confirmation that the PS5 will not have backwards compatibility with PS1, PS2, and PS3 games. Earlier at the end of August 2020, Ubisoft updated the support page on its Australian website with a note that suggested the PlayStation 5 will only have backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 games and not for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation titles.

Source - https://www.siliconera.com/jim-ryan-ps5-no-backwards-compatibility-with-ps3-and-older-games/

 

Well this is a bit of a step backwards for Sony though its not impossible that they'll add this later down the line.

[dizmo]

Surprise surprise. 

Also, the remastered titles will be up to $70 US. 

 

Xbox is looking pretty solid this gen if you don't need the PS exclusives. 

[Shammikit]

I heard PS5 games are a lot more expensive than PS4 games. will these old PS4 and PS3 backward compatible games on the PS5 be that expensive or will it sell for PS4 game prices.  

 

Or if u have the PS4 game discs will it open up on a PS5?

[WereCatf]

11 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Well this is a bit of a step backwards for Sony though its not impossible that they'll add this later down the line.

I always assumed the "backwards-compatibility" with PS1, PS2 and PS3 would be only through Playstation Now instead of local emulation. I guess I was right.

[AlTech]

7 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Surprise surprise. 

Also, the remastered titles will be up to $70 US. 

 

Xbox is looking pretty solid this gen if you don't need the PS exclusives. 

This might be an unpopular opinion but I’ve always thought that Xbox has looked pretty decent compared to Sony if people don’t care about PlayStation exclusives. Even going back into the Xbox One era with the issues at launch, after the DRM was removed and Kinnect was killed off I saw pretty much no reason to buy Sony minus the exclusives.

 

Also $70 for a remastered game is too much. 

[Kanna]

This is why I'm staying on Xbox the backwards compatibility they managed to do it good go xbox unless people want the ps exclusives or backwards compatibility doesn't matter

[Joseph K]

36 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Coming straight out of the horses mouth, Sony's own Jim Ryan has confirmed all the details about the systems backwards compatibility.

 

Its good news on the Playstation 4 front.

However for older Sony systems the news is much bleaker. He confirmed that the team just didn't have the time to work on BC for older titles and that they simply will not be supported.

This provides confirmation of the rumours that started after Ubisoft updated one of their webpages in August and seemed to indicate this would be the case.

Source - https://www.siliconera.com/jim-ryan-ps5-no-backwards-compatibility-with-ps3-and-older-games/

 

Well this is a bit of a step backwards for Sony though its not impossible that they'll add this later down the line.

meanwhile at microsoft

[Joseph K]

24 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I always assumed the "backwards-compatibility" with PS1, PS2 and PS3 would be only through Playstation Now instead of local emulation. I guess I was right.

It's because sony always used custom processors. For PS2 and PS3 backcompat they had to actually add miniature versions of the consoles into the newer gen. Xbox has always been basically a PC and the early games were all built on DirectX which means that porting them to the newer consoles is typically a breeze. The one downside to all this is that sometimes in the porting process something breaks and it's on Microsoft to notice and fix it, but it's not like Sony even offered hardware backcompat on PS4 so I don't think they won that fight.

[Aereldor]

41 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Surprise surprise. 

Also, the remastered titles will be up to $70 US. 

 

Xbox is looking pretty solid this gen if you don't need the PS exclusives. 

I was hopeful - still am - that Horizon Zero Dawn was the beginning of the end for exclusives.

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

I was hopeful - still am - that Horizon Zero Dawn was the beginning of the end for exclusives.

Sony will hold onto them for too long, just like they do their proprietary charging cables. 

[dizmo]

34 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

This might be an unpopular opinion but I’ve always thought that Xbox has looked pretty decent compared to Sony if people don’t care about PlayStation exclusives. Even going back into the Xbox One era with the issues at launch, after the DRM was removed and Kinnect was killed off I saw pretty much no reason to buy Sony minus the exclusives.

 

Also $70 for a remastered game is too much. 

I'll never buy a PS because I loathe the controller. Xbox is vastly superior to me for that alone. 

[Master Disaster]

10 minutes ago, Tedny said:

people, ps now still there 

So basically, pay again for the games you already own.

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Surprise surprise. 

Also, the remastered titles will be up to $70 US. 

 

Xbox is looking pretty solid this gen if you don't need the PS exclusives. 

 

49 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

This might be an unpopular opinion but I’ve always thought that Xbox has looked pretty decent compared to Sony if people don’t care about PlayStation exclusives. Even going back into the Xbox One era with the issues at launch, after the DRM was removed and Kinnect was killed off I saw pretty much no reason to buy Sony minus the exclusives.

 

Also $70 for a remastered game is too much. 

Once the other publishers see games selling at $70 it will become the new normal for all games this generation. 2K games & EA Games are going to be the ones pushing it (obviously the sports games) but we all know how the AAA gaming industry operates.

 

1 hour ago, Shammikit said:

I heard PS5 games are a lot more expensive than PS4 games. will these old PS4 and PS3 backward compatible games on the PS5 be that expensive or will it sell for PS4 game prices.  

 

Or if u have the PS4 game discs will it open up on a PS5?

My understanding is that you can pop a PS4 disc into a PS5 and play it though I might be wrong on that one.

[kuddlesworth9419]

The one thing I can never live without on PC is backwards compatibility. I don't understand why console gamers put up with it. 

[Shammikit]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

I'll never buy a PS because I loathe the controller. Xbox is vastly superior to me for that alone. 

I think there are other PS compatible controllers that has the same designs and buttons as the xbox controller

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Coming straight out of the horses mouth, Sony's own Jim Ryan has confirmed all the details about the systems backwards compatibility.

 

Its good news on the Playstation 4 front.

However for older Sony systems the news is much bleaker. He confirmed that the team just didn't have the time to work on BC for older titles and that they simply will not be supported.

This provides confirmation of the rumours that started after Ubisoft updated one of their webpages in August and seemed to indicate this would be the case.

Source - https://www.siliconera.com/jim-ryan-ps5-no-backwards-compatibility-with-ps3-and-older-games/

 

Well this is a bit of a step backwards for Sony though its not impossible that they'll add this later down the line.

They are almost certainly going to have PS1/PS2/PS3 through the PS Now service, because that IS what that service offers right now. However kiss your existing discs goodbye if this is the case.

 

Personally I think cutting the backwards compatibility is going to bite them. They made these consoles, they sure as hell could include a PS1/PS2/PS3 emulator since it's been possible to emulate these devices on previous generation hardware. In particular, emulators on the PC have long been possible to emulate the PS1 and PS2 with enough accuracy, that the only reason I see for the loss in compatibility is the optical drive likely can't read the discs anymore. 

 

[PlayStation 2]

I don't understand why Sony just doesn't let people play with the PS2 emulator they made for the PS4, because it actually seems to work fairly decently. Hell, the 1080i mode in Gran Turismo 4 is supposed to actually function as it does and renders out at 1152x1920. 

[AlexGoesHigh]

I hope this is a for now thing, the PS5 has enough horses to brute force emulation without special hardware for all three consoles, even the PS3 with its unique CPU can be emulated if RPCS3 can emulate a bunch (though less that half that the entire ps3 library) of games.

[elfensky]

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

Xbox is looking pretty solid this gen if you don't need the PS exclusives. 

I have such a large backlog of PS4 games, the better experience on PS5 alone makes it worth buying it, but I have to admit, getting that 299$ Xbox sounds really tempting. The whole Xbox catalog from the 360 days and some exclusives.

[Consul]

Thank god there are emulators.

[pm128]

That doesn't really matter to me since I prefer Nintendo lol

[IAmAndre]

How hard would it be for Sony to run some kind of virtual machine/emulator on the PS5 to run at least PS1 and PS2 titles? People are already doing that on PC so Sony could do it better if they wanted imo.

[CTR640]

I'll never ever pay €70 for a game, it doesn't matter which game except GTA but considering R* has fucked and destroyed GTA, I doubt it now.

Sony can simply go fuck themself. this is purely from greed standpoint like "remastered editions", "HD ports" and PSN Now.

[wanderingfool2]

4 hours ago, Kisai said:

Personally I think cutting the backwards compatibility is going to bite them. They made these consoles, they sure as hell could include a PS1/PS2/PS3 emulator since it's been possible to emulate these devices on previous generation hardware. In particular, emulators on the PC have long been possible to emulate the PS1 and PS2 with enough accuracy, that the only reason I see for the loss in compatibility is the optical drive likely can't read the discs anymore. 

Making the consoles doesn't mean it would be easy, or cost effective for them...and it makes things a lot less practical when there isn't a disc drive.  With that said, it almost seems like the statement just means they haven't completed some of that yet.  The PS3 emulation I think would be still be quite an achievement on the given hardware (well to an extent).

 

The other thing is it's an emulator, so they can't just implment the API elements, they need to emulate some of the chips...yes there are things like PS2 emulators, but Sony would have to create their code from scratch (and look at how long the PS2 emulator has been in dev. without being 100% accurate)

[linkboy]

18 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Making the consoles doesn't mean it would be easy, or cost effective for them...and it makes things a lot less practical when there isn't a disc drive.  With that said, it almost seems like the statement just means they haven't completed some of that yet.  The PS3 emulation I think would be still be quite an achievement on the given hardware (well to an extent).

 

The other thing is it's an emulator, so they can't just implment the API elements, they need to emulate some of the chips...yes there are things like PS2 emulators, but Sony would have to create their code from scratch (and look at how long the PS2 emulator has been in dev. without being 100% accurate)

Sony already has a functional PS1 (the one from the PSP/Vita) and PS2 emulator (in fact the PS4 has it in it's firmware, which is how it runs the few PS2 classics on PS4).

 

Sony also has access to the internal documentation of the PS2 (since they made it), which gives them a leg up in emulation development compared to someone developing one on their own.

 

They could make this work if they wanted to, but they don't, and that's the only reason why the PS4 and PS5 don't support PS1 and PS2 games.