Ever since its release back in 2014, PT has been lauded as one of the best horror gaming experiences. The short demo was so affecting and unsettling that many horror fans have even claimed PT shaped the future of horror games.
Unfortunately, now that the next generation of consoles is almost here, players are upset that PT is forever stuck on the PS4. However, recent reports from outlets like Polygon and GamesRadar have confirmed that PT was, at one point, briefly playable on PS5 before the console’s launch.
For those who may be unfamiliar with PT, the game is only a demo of what was supposed to be a full experience. PT was developed as a teaser for a full-on game in the Silent Hill series. The demo and full title were going to be new projects for the Kojima Productions team while still under Konami, until Hideo Kojima and Konami had their infamous falling out. Since Silent Hills' cancellation, PT has been removed from the PlayStation Store and is only accessible by those who downloaded it before its removal on PS4.
However, seeing as the demo is so beloved within the gaming sphere, one of the first things some journalists did upon receiving PS5s for coverage was try to bring over PT to the new hardware. Despite reports in October claiming PS5 backward compatibility didn’t include PT, journalists were still able to fully bring the demo over to PS5 and even play it for a brief period of time. Michael McWhertor of Polygon and Leon Hurley of GamesRadar both claim to have had PT running on PS5 during the past two weeks until it was suddenly no longer playable. McWhertor said, “…After being forced to do a factory reset of my PS5 review unit this week, which deleted all game content from the system, I learned I was no longer able to transfer P.T. from PS4 to PS5.”
These reports are interesting for a number of reasons. For one, Konami outright confirmed that PT would not be playable on next generation consoles and it apparently was fully playable. Second, it appears that Konami actively pulled support for PT on PS5 later than expected, as those with review consoles could play PT on PS5 but the wider public getting their consoles on launch day would never be able to. Why Konami would restrict PT’s compatibility with PS5 isn’t a big mystery considering the company’s muddy fallout with Kojima, but why it restricted compatibility so late is a different story.
It’s a shame, because PT is undoubtedly a beloved horror experience, but it’s stranded on PS4. What’s more, is that there’s no way to ever legitimately download it again. On top of that, while PT was apparently completely functional on PS5, players won’t be able to safely transfer it from the PS4 without losing access to it altogether.
PT was cancelled and is no longer in development.
Source: Polygon, GamesRadar
