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Sony is Attempting to Make PlayStation 5 Backward Compatible
It sounds as if plans for backward compatible support on PlayStation 5 are still up in the air, as Sony has confirmed that it's still looking into the feature. Gaming as a whole has taken massive steps forward in recent years from a consumer level, and console manufacturers have progressively been tearing down walls that used to seperate players. In particular, PlayStation has pushed its cross-play iniative out of beta to widely allow developers to implement their technology to have Xbox One users to play against PS4 players.
It's an interesting time to be a gamer, especially with the next generation of gaming consoles right around the corner. Sony has just confirmed that PlayStation 5 will launch in holiday 2020, which sets it up to go head-to-head with Xbox Scarlett. While Microsoft is pushing backward compatability with its titles for the next generation Xbox console, Sony claims that it's still looking into backward compatability as an option on PS5.
During a recent interview between Sony and Japanese gaming mag Famitsu, it was confirmed that backward compatability was something being looked into. Even then, it wasn't something that Sony was willing to commit to just yet, which is not a sign that fans had been hoping to see on this front. The offical statement to Famitsu (translated via BlackKite) reads: "Currently, the dev team is putting all power on verifying whether they can secure a complete compatibility. Please wait for more information."
If Sony were to launch the PS5 without backward compatibility then it would be at a disadvantage to Microsoft and its Xbox Scarlett right out of the gate. That's not just from a software perspective either, as Xbox Scarlett will support all of the controllers currently available on the Xbox One. We already know that PlayStation 5 will feature new controllers and it sounds as if existing PS4 remotes won't work on the new Sony hardware.
There is still quite a bit going on with Sony and its newly-confirmed PlayStation 5 console. While no titles have officially been announced for the enhanced hardware, Bluepoint Games did confirm that it is working on a massive PlayStation 5 game. While that's something that fans can look forward to, having enhanced PS4 titles run on the console from day one makes the upgrade to PS5 a much easier decision. With Microsoft speaheading the backward compatability concept head-on with Scarlett, this could be a major turning point in consumer-branded console wars.
At the very least, Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service should help the platform holder, even if PS4 games can't be played directly from PlayStation 5.
