A major leak by a prolific PS4 modder has given new grounds for hope that Sony’s next-gen PlayStation 5 actually can play any legacy PS4 title without the need for official whitelisting. Sony hasn’t released any statement for this leak about full backward compatibility yet, so we’ll have to take this with a grain of salt.
Lance McDonald is a popular streamer and modder who has made a name for himself especially for uncovering unused content for the PS4 exclusive Bloodborne. McDonald even released an unofficial 60fps patch for the game that gained him notoriety.
In a recent Tweet the modder openly said that the PlayStation 5 can play any PS4 game even without Sony officially whitelisting them. He has since deleted the Tweet ‘out of respect for the platform holder’ but the info is already out. How McDonald knows that this is the case was not disclosed but since he is a well-known community figurehead when it comes to PlayStation, we have to expect he’s not lying.
At the start of every console generation, the usual talking points are launch exclusive games and the system’s actual power. At the dawn of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, one particular aspect has managed to stand out, however. Backward Compatibility.
Microsoft has been very clear and loud about the Series X supporting every Xbox One game which is a major advantage. Not only that, but the team over at Xbox is without a doubt leading the gaming industry when it comes to offering outstanding emulation-based BC for the original Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
One aspect Sony has been sadly neglecting to the dismay of many PlayStation owners. In fact, the PS4 is Sony’s first console to not offer any kind of backward compatibility whatsoever. While modern games are undoubtedly the driving force for any system, there is a large number of gamers who value the ability to play their existing games on new consoles without having to rebuy them as remasters, etc.
Sony experienced a real PR blunder earlier this year when they first stated that the ‘Top 100’ PS4 games are going to work on the PS5, only to elaborate soon after that they are aiming to certify all 4000+ PS4 games. All that left prospect consumers quite confused.
