Sony has spilled most of the important info about the PlayStation 5 in recent weeks, including launch date and price, but one thing people still had questions about was backward compatibility. Now Sony has cleared that up, too.
A PlayStation support document details exactly what PS5 owners can expect when it comes to playing PS4 games on their next-gen console. Sony says that the "overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 games are playable" on PS5. Some PS4 games will get faster loading speeds and also benefit from the PS5's Game Boost, which could help them run at a higher or smoother frame rate.
If you've got PS4 digital games and game saves, you can transfer those to your new PS5 console using LAN cables or over Wi-Fi. You can also use an store PS4 games and game data on an external USB storage device and plug that into your PS5. PS Plus members can sync PS4 game saves to PS5 using cloud storage.
However, not every single PS4 game will work perfectly on the PS5, Sony cautions. Some features that were available on the PS4 console may not be on the PS5, and some PS4 games might "exhibit errors or unexpected behavior" on a PS5.
Sony also warns that there's a small list of PS4 games that are not playable on a PS5. They are:
While there will be several new PS5 games to play at launch, having backward compatibility with PS4 titles will give owners of the new console even more games to play. It's good for Sony to finally come out with these details, and while it says that some PS4 games might have errors running on a PS5, developers of some of those titles might push out updates to fix the problems.
