PS5 will not play PS1/PS2/PS3 games but 99% of PS4 library

After months of rumors and hopes by gamers, it’s now official. Sony’s PS5 will not feature any kind of backward compatibility with any titles prior to the PS4 generation. The information comes directly from the horses mouth. So, there really is no more need to hope for a surprise.

Ubisoft’s recent leak turned out to be right on the money. In an interview with Japanese gaming publication Famitsu via Arstechnica, Sony Interactive Entertainment President Jim Ryan let the cat out of the bag when journalists inquired about his company’s plans in terms of retro gaming support.

Ryan was very blunt, stating that inherent technical engineering of the PS5 made it too difficult for the console to sport extended backward compatibility. Ryan has a point here. Even Microsoft who is pioneering BC support on their consoles have to manually work on patches game by game to assure BC functionality.

Still, many PlayStation users were hoping that Sony would adapt to the competition and invest time and money to add BC support. With a treasure trove of thousands of games across three console generations, retro gamers will have to keep their old systems plugged in it seems.

But not everything is lost. Ryan also confirmed that the PS5 will support virtually the entire PlayStation 4 game library. 99% to be precise. So, for everyone who already has a large PS4 library, jumping to Sony’s newest console should be very easy and hassle-free.

It needs to be reminded that this BC support news is only about native disc functionality. It’s almost certain that Sony will be adding retro PlayStation games on PSN just the way it is on the PS4.