PS5 Only Backward Compatible with Top-100 PS4 Games at Launch: Older-Gen Support Uncertain

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During today’s PlayStation 5 deep-dive, lead architect Mark Cerny confirmed that Sony’s next-gen console would offer backward compatibility with the PS4, but there’s a slight catch – only the most popular titles would be supported at launch. That’s because each game has to be tested/reworked to run correctly on the PS5, which has much higher performance.



“Running PS4 and PS4 titles at boosted frequencies has also added complexity,” Cerny said. “The boost is truly massive this time around and some game code just can’t handle it. Testing has to be done on a title by title basis. Results are excellent though. We recently took a look at the top 100 PlayStation 4 titles as ranked by playtime and we’re expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PlayStation 5.”...
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Kinda surprised by this - thought the PS5 was supposed to have a 'PS4 Mode' that would more or less run exactly like actual PS4 hardware making B/C support easy.
 
Not really too shocking. MS doesn't have universal BC on Xbone, they have to custom tailor the settings per game. PS5 will be similar, so they start with the most famous 100 games and work from there.

I figured the PS3/PS2/PS1 BC was just internet babble, and it's looking like it is. There is no reason the hardware cannot emulate the older consoles, but that would take time/effort so don't expect it day 1, if ever.
 
I dunno, still surprising to me. Maybe not the older machines (PS 1 - 3) but thought for sure the PS4 would be an easy one for them to make B/C.

I'll need to read up on it, but I didn't think the XSX to Xbox One b/c compatibility was going to be a 'case per case', thought all the XBox One software was going to work out of the box for the XSX.
 
This was disappointing news. More so than the tech spec reveal.

I will admit I don’t use backwards compatibility often, but it’s a really nice feature to have and not having to ditch an entire library of previous gen, only to have to buy it later on as remaster, is great.

i think this is one area MS is doing particularly well in.
 
My personal view is that the PS5 is more or less an upgraded version of the PS4 (Pro). It should be a matter of adjusting clock speeds accordingly to get most PS4 games to run well on the new hardware. Both have AMD x64 CPU plus GPU, different generations but still reasonably similar. Throw in some patches for the quirkier games and you should have basically the whole library available. They already have experience running two hardware architectures with the Pro, closer releated than the new hardware but still.

The big question here is the comment "at launch". Because for all we know they may not have the time to do this tuning/patching until after the PS5 is launched. And the other backwards compatibility will have to be done with emulation. I believe they already have good PS1/2 emulators for existing PS hardware, so that will just be a matter of time. No idea on the status of PS3 emulation. But the new hardware should be able to emulate that as well. The Cell processor is a bit of an unicorn though, so who knows really.
 
Pandur said:
My personal view is that the PS5 is more or less an upgraded version of the PS4 (Pro). It should be a matter of adjusting clock speeds accordingly to get most PS4 games to run well on the new hardware.
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I think it has more to with nonflexibility in the APIs than hardware. I do agree with you - seems like a viable solution should be out there; virtualization or downshifting clocks or something, but apparently it’s not as easy as my armchair quarterbacking would make it seem.

The PS4Pro actually had its GPU split in two - one section was nearly identical to the PS4, the other section added the boost for games that enabled it. It makes me think the APIs they are using all assume standard hardware speeds and specs (which, yeah, it s a console you can make that assumption for a generation, and that’s part of how you get down to the metal for better efficiency).

Thats also how they did backwards compatibility in the fat PS3, it actually had a PS2 cpu in it to run backwards titles.

PS1 compatibility was done via emulation, and all the hardware just has enough brute force to emulate a PS1.
 
Brian_B said:
I think it has more to with nonflexibility in the APIs than hardware. I do agree with you - seems like a viable solution should be out there; virtualization or downshifting clocks or something, but apparently it’s not as easy as my armchair quarterbacking would make it seem.

The PS4Pro actually had its GPU split in two - one section was nearly identical to the PS4, the other section added the boost for games that enabled it. It makes me think the APIs they are using all assume standard hardware speeds and specs (which, yeah, it s a console you can make that assumption for a generation, and that’s part of how you get down to the metal for better efficiency).

Thats also how they did backwards compatibility in the fat PS3, it actually had a PS2 cpu in it to run backwards titles.

PS1 compatibility was done via emulation, and all the hardware just has enough brute force to emulate a PS1.
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Yeah if a Rpii can do PS1 + PS2 games, then not having it as an option on a current Playstation console is laziness, or unwillingness ($$$). Not for a lack of hardware horsepower.
 
Maybe they will pull a nintendo and offer them for sale online only for a few bucks a pop to double dip. ;)
 
Given the rise in nostalgia gaming, leaving this out was not a good move on Sony's part. I agree that they may have an online service like Nintendo though.
 
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