PS5 Backwards Compatibility Is a Huge Deal for Sony as Bosses Call It a 'Critical Success Factor'

It would be nice to see PS5 be backwards compatible with all previous console generations. But if not all are made available it would be nice to see PS1-PS2 support

If its just ps4 then I will be disappointed. Xbox one can play a selection of games from every gen of xbox so hopefully Sony do the same.

What would of been even better or the best thing ever would be PS1 and PS2 and PS3 disc playback :-/ + the PS4 had no B/C at all and has been selling like mad so I don't get why SONY say it's important for now!?!? One minute they say no one wants it then it's important. Make your mind up SONY

Days Gone without the initial load screens...I'm so ready!!

@HenFjo Yeah I’m hoping they throw in a PS1/2 emulator as well. I can see it potentially cutting into any PS Now or PS classics revenue though so I’m not getting my hopes up.

Considering the comments Sony were making around Backwards Compatibility around the time that MS were promoting their XB1 BC, especially the 'numbers' that actually use it compared to those that state they want it, I am a little surprised by this. BC (or lack there of) certainly hasn't had any impact on the PS4 and it sold faster than any other Playstation without BC.

Personally, I don't have a preference either way - at least not if the BC brings nothing to the game. I will still keep my PS4 & Pro regardless and, depending on the implementation of BC, it will just depend when my Pro gets moved to the bedroom. BC could be like the XB1 (partial with little/no benefit), like the X (with some benefits to some games) or total BC. It could be with or without Pro supported enhancements - which makes BC more complicated to implement (having to model both a PS4 and a PS4 Pro hardware spec).

Point is, I am not going to be pinning my hopes on Total compatibility with ALL PS4 games, PS4 Pro support too and even some games looking and running better than they ever did on ANY PS4. The Xbox One is considered to be a BC console with just a quarter of the previous Gen games actually playable on the latest console(s) - far fewer OG Xbox titles too.

IF the PS5 is Partial (at launch with new titles being added over time), doesn't offer Pro support (plays the games as a standard PS4 would) and/or doesn't offer any enhancements at all (better visuals, better frame rates), I will not be angry or upset because I am NOT pinning my hopes or expectations on 'more'. If we get more - bonus but either way, I will still have my PS4's...

"Will you be making use of the PS5's backwards compatibility?"

Considering I can't think of any announced PS5 exclusive games right now and there are 4 big PS4 games that haven't released yet - Ghosts, TLOU2, Death Stranding, FF7R - I'm guessing the majority of hours played the first year the PS5 launches will be in BC mode.

The main difference between the PS4 being the "PortStation 4" and the PS5 being the "PortStation 5" is we probably won't need to re-purchase as many games.

There will be some though. I'm assuming GTAV will finally get 4k support as it never got Pro or X1X improvements.

PS4 has no BC: no one cares about BC!
PS5 will have it: BC is a huge deal!

During a period when digital purchases have grown in relevance, it only makes sense that you can maintain and play those games on the newer platform. Buying PS5 is the obvious choice if you have a large PS4 digital Library as you dont need two systems about.

I expected PS5 to do this, PS4 was probably developed with this in mind as they get to maintain a massive player base who are already invested in the Playstation platform with their PS+ collections and personal digital libraries. New PS5 customers also have instant access to purchase from an extensive Library of PS4 games already playable their new system.

I think Sony have got it right with ps4 BC and in my opinion ps1,2, and 3 isnt required especially if they play but not with any enhancements - do you know how bad a ps1 game would look on a 65 inch 4k tv? What i do want with PS4 BC though is improvements so its in line with a decent pc - AC Origins/Odyssey, GTA V, Just Cause all in 4k and 60 FPS would make those games relevant and i expect people would buy them again if they didnt have them.

@Neolit i'm just saying that sony made a very broad statement some time ago regarding BC.

Now that I've really thought about it, unless this thing has a lot of storage or enhances those PS4 games I'll just be keeping my PRO anyway. Storage is likely to be at a premium so moving nearly 1tb of games over before even buying a PS5 game seems a bit silly. If there is a new PSVR which is more accurate I'll move them across but otherwise I'll just leave them on my PRO.

@supergurr thing is for the XB1 BC it's a selection of games as you said and honestly i would rather a console be able to play all games from one generation than select games from multiple ones

Well of course it's a massive thing!
With ~100million units sold, all those players being able the keep and play all their PS4 games is just one more reason to not buy an XBox 0/Infinite/Transformer (or whatever they're going to call it) and therefore an easy win for Sony to get a head start on the competition.

Now my backlog problems will carry on between generations 😅

@Neolit it may be emulated but it still offers some games which is more than ps4 currently offers. My point wasnt to praise xbox it was to say hopefully Sony see its a good option to add.

it needs to play PS4 games from the disc, or else the feature is close to useless for me. it would be interesting to know if the spiderman 'fast loading fast traversing' demo that's been shown is using an enhanced version of the game compatible with the PS5 specs, or the current PS4 version in 'BC mode'. personally, i'm not pinning any hopes on the games running better than standard PS4 performance. at best, you'll get a more stable experience at the standard resolution/framerate cap.

n.i.c.e. hopefully it can play ps1 ps2 and ps3 games also.woemrd up son

Never have before, and I probably wouldn't be that bothered if it didn't have it, but this time around... yes, I probably would make use of b/c, for reasons I won't post again as I went into detail in a comment yesterday.

@Neolit I disagree in part. The PS3 and XB360 era still had 'digital' games and the whole GwG/PS+ free games were all Digital. Whilst PS+ may not of been as Popular due to the free online aspect on PS3, with all the continued Support, right up to March of this year, there could be MANY PS3 owners with a 'big' digital library - let alone all the game updates too.

The biggest shift this generation has been more around the AAA games but there was certainly a lot of 'indie/arcade' games that were only Digital as well as the massive amount of DLC content that also released. Whether you owned the base game on Disc or not, you still couldn't play ANY PS3 content on the Current generation Playstation and if the PS5 had no BC, whether you bought digitally or physically, without keeping your PS4, you lose access to ALL your Library of games just the same.

The same principal applies though - whether you bought your games Digitally or on Disc. If you wanted to play ANY PS3 game, regardless of how you opted to purchase, you still had to keep your PS3 and, without BC, regardless of how you purchased, if you want to keep playing your PS4 games, you would need to keep your PS4.

The fact that more people are opting to buy AAA digitally is irrelevant. Whether you spent your money on digital or on Physical media, you still paid out money on content to play on PS4. It doesn't make any difference whether you bought God of War (for example) digitally or on disc, without BC, owners would still of spent money on the same games and both would need to keep hold of their PS4 to keep playing - its NO different.

People have a choice to buy Physical or Digital and regardless of the person's choice, they paid money to play the game on the console it was made for. Without BC, both physical and digital content owners either have to keep their old console or give-up their access to those games. With BC, whether you bought digitally or Physically, you get exactly the same access. If people want to put their money into Digital purchases, that is their choice, just like its the choice of those who buy physical. Both spent money on a game licence to play that game on a specific console. The fact that 'digital' cost's more is also irrelevant - it costs more because there is NO competition from other retailers to drive the prices down like there is with Physical media and Physical media has the same RRP. The digital store charges RRP because they can where as bricks and mortar stores sell cheaper because their customers can and will go elsewhere to buy inc online stores like Amazon, GAME etc if they were to charge RRP.

I think its an absolute joke that people think because they opted to buy Digitally for 'convenience' on their Console of choice think that they should have Backwards Compatibility more than those who still bought the game but opted to buy Physically - let alone all the Digital extras they may of purchased - the same as those on PS3/XB360 gamers.

If Sony (or MS) and 'any' of the publishers decide to pull their games from the digital store, unless you have downloaded it, you could still end up not having access regardless of BC.

Whether I have a predominantly physical or Digital (considering PS+ offers more games than I could afford to buy), without BC, I would still be in exactly the same position as EVERYONE - regardless of their choice to buy Physical, digital or both. There is NO difference at all - except in 10yrs or more, If Sony opted to shut down access to digital PS4 libraries, I can still play ALL my physical games (at least all those that are not reliant on Online - like Destiny for example) where as those with Digital only purchases can only play the offline games they still had stored.

@manu0 bc I a good thing top have at the start of a console cycle. But after a couple of years its less of a selling point and factor. When xb1 induced it, it was nearing irrelevancy for me as I've moved on to sequels and new games. So while im stoked the ps5 will have it, after 2-3 years I will use far less than when I originally made the purchase.

For all those who want PS1/2/3 backwards playback it's called PS NOW, I doubt they would do hardware based playback when NOW is Sony's future. It's one reason why I think they've partnered with MS for a stronger Cloud solution because it's probably going to give them better PSN structure since MS Live is more stable than PSN.

What Sony need to do is make a Plus and NOW subscription for a yearly price somewhere around £80 a year maybe. But then they may do a £100 a year Plus/Now sub that's get you 2 free games a month I can't see them doing hardware emulation when NOW is going to be there answer to playing old games, the issue with that is they need to expand the back catalog for PS1 and 2s mostly as 3 I don't care as I do still have my PS3 console

@manu0 i came here to say that lol in the past sony didn't care about BC especially when they removed it from the ps3 and said no one uses it.

@Neolit I think we will just have to agree to differ - not that it makes any difference as Sony do appear to be offering BC anyway.

As for the 'total' loss, that's the choice people make - sacrificing sell on value for convenience. There are countless people that paid for 'digital' content on the previous generation too - not just AAA games but all the DLC content, all the indie/arcade games etc - inc all the game updates that 'fixed' issues with games. Without BC or online access in the future, a lot of the Physical games are limited (to just offline content) and potentially broken games too.

It doesn't matter whether you bought games like Destiny or the Division if the servers get turned off. Regardless of whether you bought Digitally or Physically, those games are worthless. Physical game collections are not worth a lot of money per title right now, they maybe in 20yrs to some retro gamer and who knows if the current era games will still be playable (unless you have the Physical disc or downloaded game still stored) regardless.

When people started opting to buy more and more AAA games digitally, they were bought with the current generation in mind - certainly no guarantee and the licence was for PS4 only (or PS3/vita too with some indie cross generation/platform games). People were still buying Digital content (games, DLC etc) on last generation too and, unless they kept their old consoles, lost all access to all their content - whether it was bought Physically or not. Trade in value for Disc based games (unless sold privately) was terrible too - £1-2 at best because the retailer had 'boxes' of those games and were selling them for less than £5. Whether Physical content or not, you still lost a LOT of money if you bought the games new. How much is Killzone 2 or 3 worth now that the majority of content is now inaccessible. How much would BO2 PS3 be worth compared to buying the game on day 1, buying the Season Pass and a lot of the Micro-transaction weapon camo's? How much if they turn off the servers? To the person that still plays it online (whilst they can), its worth more than to anybody else because the bulk of money they spent was on online content that is worthless to anybody else.

I wonder if it would have been a lesser issue if MS hadn't implemented their BC programme - Sony seemed to believe that BC wasn't important and, at most something that Gamers only use for the first few month's of ownership - until they have amassed a few more 'new' generation titles. Its more desirable now because the competition offers it.

Until the Xbox started offering BC and even after for a lot of people, it was not a big topic, it certainly didn't affect PS4 sales either before or after MS added it. If it was such a 'big' deal, then why hasn't the Xbox (either the S or X - both of which also offer better media players, better audio etc than PS) started to close the gap, overtake the monthly sales? In reality, Sony have continued to extend their market share, selling more PS's every month than MS sell Xbox.

Regardless of the games you bought, the amount of Digital content owned, PS3 owners had to keep their PS3 consoles if they wished to keep access to their games. If they opted to 'trade' their console in against a PS4, they still had to give up ALL their games, all the digital content they may of purchased. Granted the ones that had a 'big' physical games library would have got a bit more for the trade in but they still couldn't access ANY content without the console they bought the games to play on. Those that bought just Physical (no DLC or owned any digital games, films etc) still would have lost a lot of money compared to how much they spent.

Like I said, there also could be a lot of PS3/Vita owners that only upgrade in 'recent' months with a PS+ account, hundreds of digital games as well as any indie/arcade games bought in countless sales, DLC/Micro-transactional extras too that will 'lose' everything if they opt to sell those consoles. Did it stop them buying games in sales even though they knew the PS4 wasn't BC? They, like I have had to do, will probably keep their PS3 and their library of PS3 content because those games are 'important' to them.

This is the BIG point though - every person that has purchased content (games, DLC etc - regardless of digital/physical format) all bought them for their current console and ALL have the current console to play that content on. Whether the PS5 is BC or not, they can still play ALL that content on the console it was bought for regardless of the format. When the PS5 launches, ALL those games will still be playable on PS4. With or without BC, gamers can still play ALL their existing PS4 games and the only 'difference' is whether or not you can trade in your PS4. With BC, you won't be selling ANY PS4 games you want to keep and any you don't, at least with physical copies, can be sold with the console. Without BC, you have the choice to keep your PS4 and access to all games or sell your console and lose access to all your games. Without BC, its not forcing you to choose between losing your library or remain on last gen - you can still own both a PS4 and PS5 to keep playing. At best, its a little less clutter around the TV and that's all it is.

I still have my PS3 and my XB360 so can still play ANY of my last gen games regardless of whether or not any of those titles are BC. I still need to put the disc in on my XB1 to play those few games that are BC (or play them on my PS3/360). I haven't lost access to any of my games, any of my digital purchases with or without BC

This one feature is what's probably gonna make me buy a PS5 day one.

@manu0
If BC is only for PS4, it will be a total waste of time, since most players upgrading to the new PS5, will keep their PS4s. Any Bluetooth headphones compatibility and a mobile module like the Switch, could be great though.

Lol, completely the opposite of what was said around the PS4 not having it.

This is all about psn and keeping the current user base which really is a nobrainer. How to encourage users to buy online copies of games if they stop working the next generation? I probably have over 100 games bought/downloaded. Would I go Xbox and loose that collection?

While the PS5 should be able to emulate the PS1 and PS2 (heck, even the PS4 should be able to emulate either of those), I think Sony are referring to PS4 BC only.
With such a massive user base, to keep hold of those kind of numbers and not lose sales to MS and it gives them a massive advantage to get a head start on the competition.
While PS2 BC would be great (not so bothered about PS1 which looks blocky and terrible even on a lowly 40" 1080p TV), I think they mean PS4 BC and all previous generations can be handled by Now. That said, I think that in that respect they really need to up their game in terms of what's offered as the PS2 titles are mostly laughable.