Though Sony finally laid plenty of rumors and speculative forums to rest by announcing the price and release date for its next-generation PlayStation 5Â this week, the developer still left a number of questions up in the air. For example, Sony CEO Jim Ryan confirmed the PS5 will be backwards compatible with 99 percent of PS4 games at launch, but it was unclear whether that would extend to prior consoles as well. Unfortunately, it appears PS1 through PS3 titles will not be as accessible.
In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu following yesterday's PS5 Showcase, Ryan confirmed that the team did not have time to work on backwards compatibility for any PS1, PS2, or PS3 titles. According to a translation provided by Siliconera Ryan said, "While implementing [compatibility with the PS4], we also focused our efforts on taking in the high-speed SSD and the new controller ... So, unfortunately, we couldn't reach the implementation of such compatibilities."
The fact that the PS5 will only have backwards compatibility with PS4 titles was previously revealed by Ubisoft leaking the console's compatibility info on a support page, though that part was quickly removed. Some will undoubtedly see this as a huge blow to Sony's next-gen hardware considering Microsoft has previously announced that its Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will have the capability of playing titles going back to the Xbox 360 era.
That being said, Sony also announced that it is introducing new ways for players to access PS4 titles on the PS5. Similar to Xbox Game Pass, the new PlayStation Plus Collection service will give PS Plus users immediate access to a "selection of generation defining PS4 games" such as The Last of Us: Remastered, Persona 5, and God of War (2018).
A number of other announcements throughout the PS5 Showcase also caught people's interests. New games including Final Fantasy 16 and the Harry Potter RPG Hogwarts Legacy were revealed, and it was confirmed that the PS5 and its digital-only model will be releasing on November 12 in select regions for $499 and $399 respectively. They will be available worldwide November 19.
At the end of the event, Sony also provided a teaser for the sequel to God of War (2018) that is currently in development to release 2021, rounding out a decent selection and range of titles that will be coming out during the PlayStation 5's early life. However, the lack of extended backwards compatibility may still be a sore spot to some potential buyers, so time will tell how sales for the next-gen console shake out.
Sources: Siliconera, Famitsu
