Back in March, lead architect Mark Cerny confirmed that the PlayStation 5 would support PS4 games, but there was a disappointing caveat: only the top-100 titles would be backward compatible at launch, since Sony wanted to test each and every game individually to ensure bug-free compatibility with PS5’s advanced hardware. That’s certainly better than no backward compatibility at all, but now we’re hearing that Sony may have undersold just how many PS4 games will be playable on the PS5 when it launches.
According to a now-deleted tweet (via ResetEra) from Lance McDonald, a popular streamer and game hacker, the PlayStation 5 is actually launching with complete PS4 backward compatibility. Apparently, there isn’t any kind of white-listing mechanism in place, which means that the PS5 will run any current-gen disc, regardless of whether it’s been tested or not.
“There’s been some confusion about this in the past, and I can clear it up now: the PlayStation 5 can run all PlayStation 4 games without per-game whitelisting,” McDonald tweeted. “Sony continues to test titles, but the system will not prevent you from launching untested games.”
We’ll have to wait for Sony’s official word on this, but if true, comprehensive backward compatibility would be a major incentive for PlayStation fans to pick up the PS5 on day one. The possibility doesn’t really seem that far fetched, anyway – why would the next-gen console be limited to such a (relatively) small lineup of PS4 titles when it has special “Pro Legacy/PS4 Legacy” modes built into it?