Topic: Questions about upgrading from PS4 to PS5

We have a base model PS4 that works fine. But of course it has loud fans on games like God of War. So I was considering trading it in at a local game store to get a PS5. Since it is backwards compatible I can keep the PS4 game library and still play those. Questions:

Is it okay to get a used PS5? In other words, are they reasonably reliable? I have not heard stories like on the Xbox 360 which was junk for the old models.

Any advantage to getting the original PS5 instead of the slim? I am thinking the original would be cheaper. And possibly better with heat dissipation due to the extra size/space.

I know the digital version is not recommended. But, I am still curious about how backward compatibility works on that model. I assume you would only get access to your PS4 digital game library, not your disc PS4 games. Is this correct?

Any other tips or advice on upgrading from PS4 to PS5 would be appreciated. I imagine lots and lots of people have done this over the past few years, it would be great to hear how the process went.

@ps4life23 Yes, I got a used ('Very Good' condition but was unmarked) fat PS5 with disc drive for £344 from Music Magpie. Mine even had a 1TB extended storage SSD in it that some one had obviously forgotten to take out! No problems with it so far.

As far as noise goes, I don't think there's a lot of difference. Obviously the slim PS5s will be newer and therefore so will the thermal paste. If you can find a 1216 model of original fat ones, the innards are about the same as the slims.

Yes, the digital version can't use PS4 discs. There's one caveat to that as the the slim models can have a disc drive purchased separately and attached as that is how the disc drive model is. Separate disc drives are about £70 so factor that in to the cost.

Finally, if you sign in to PSN on the PS5 with your PS4 credentials, you'll obviously get access to all your PS4 library.
Then get ready to be really frustrated as the PS4's slick UI gives way to the mess of button presses and un-customisable theme that constitute the PS5's UI.

Following up on the question of keeping your PS4 games. If you have the PS4 digital version of, say, God of War, you would be able to redownload it on the PS5. But, if you have the PS4 disc version only, can you still download it on PS5 since it is considered in your library?

@ps4life23 To answer about PS4 discs you own and have in your library, no you cannot download the game to the PS5 without inserting the disc. So it works just like the PS4 in that sense. Even though the game will show up in your library of games if you’ve played it from disc before, if you try to download it to the PS5 from the PSN or even when you try to launch it after it’s already downloaded on your PS5 hard drive, it will prompt you to insert the disc for verification. If there’s no disc for the game in the drive when you click on the game it will also prompt you with the option to buy the digital version from the PS store, as an alternative to inserting the disc. But if you have lots of discs, you should get a disc PS5 or get the digital slim model and then purchase a separate disc drive to install later. The separate drive is $80 new. I’m not sure if they have those used out there but probably they do. The drive installs and clicks into place fairly easily.

@ps4life23 Following on from the post by @Yousef- have a look at the PS5 titles and work out if it's worth it.
I have to confess I bought mine on a case of FOMO and part of me does wish I hadn't bothered as I've still got a PS4 Pro with an internal SSD.

Lol, I started to make a list and it just became too long and is basically most games released in the last 3 years. 😅
There’s mountains of games unavailable now on PS4.

@Yousef- Yeah, as far as first party and second party, the list of PS5 games without a PS4 version is much shorter (off the top of my head— Demon’s Souls, Returnal, Rift Apart, Spidey 2, Astro Bot, Saros, GoYotei Helldivers 2, Marathon, Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, Nioh 3… probably others I’m forgetting) but in the third party realm it’s a massive number. Baldur’s Gate 3, KCD2, RE Requeim, FF16 and Rebirth, Silent Hill 2 and f, Dynasty Warriors Origins (😄!), etc, etc…. Honestly probably in the hundreds.

I think the real death of the PS4 (as far as new releases) was probably in 2020 when Cyberpunk 2077’s PS4 version was basically unplayable. I think they patched it up to be serviceable but the PS4 limitations were really exposed at that point. Many PS4 releases came out after 2020, but they really dried up around 2023. Certainly there’s still PS4 games being released even today, but pretty much indies only and maybe a few AA, I think.

Regarding FF16, I really liked the game, but over time it hasn’t held quite a legacy like other games in the series. It’s very action-heavy, but was still quite fun in my experience. People compare the combat to DMC, which I think is probably a decent comparison, but there’s even some ‘hack and slash’ feeling to it, which might scratch an itch for someone who likes the Musou genre. It’s obviously not a true musou or truly ‘hack and slash’, but it does have a quick pace to mob battles involving dispatching of several enemies single handedly. There is some magic attacks you can cycle through and use on the fly, but sometimes it is just a frenetic pace of mowing down a few enemies. There’s several huge epic boss battles though, which are both long and a big visual spectacle, so that may or may not appeal.

@ps4life23 God, the difference in volume going from my base PS4 to base PS5 was like going from a jumbo jet to electric car! That alone was almost worth the upgrade when I got mine five or six years ago!

The one thing I would say though is because I had both consoles at the same time, the upgrade was flawless as you could use a LAN cable to connect the two (or just via wifi) and it would transfer over all your data from save files to games already downloaded on the console. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and quick it was. So if you can afford to hold onto it, even temporarily, it it probably worth it.