PS4 games are reportedly having their load times drastically improved, ahead of PS5

PlayStation 4’s The Last of Us: Remastered has reportedly had its load times drastically improved by a recent patch.

As detailed in a new video (embedded below), Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us: Remastered’s initial load screen now lasts just 14 seconds on PlayStation 4 after a recent patch, compared to over a minute pre-update.

According to another video, first-party title Until Dawn has also seen its loading screens virtually removed entirely. However, it’s unclear how authentic this claim is as there’s no evidence of the game being patched recently.

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Multiple first-party PS4 games have been quietly updated in recent weeks including God of War and God of War 3 Remastered, it’s been claimed, possibly in preparation for backwards compatibility support on PS5.

UPDATE 26/10/20: God of War and God of War 3 Remastered saves can be transferred from PS4 to PS5, while 2018’s game will run at up to 60fps on Sony’s next-gen console.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: Many of these updates to legacy PS4 titles can be seen on Orbis Patches – a site which tracks PlayStation 4 game updates – including a recent patch for first-party title Concrete Genie.

While the majority of the updates simply reference “bug fixes” in their notes, it’s claimed that by looking at the files through a hex editor references to PS5 can be seen.

It’s been speculated that the updates could be introducing new compression techniques, in addition to preparing support for PlayStation 5, but this is not confirmed and would likely result in huge downloads.

Speed of access is one of the flagship features of PlayStation 5, with the console’s high-bandwidth SSD able to achieve access speeds of 5.5GB/s. It also has a hardware unit dedicated to decompressing files, which should result in even faster loading.

Sony has claimed that “the overwhelming majority” of the 4,000+ PS4 games are playable on PS5. However, it notes that “some functionalities that were available on the PS4 console may not be available on PS5 consoles” and “some PS4 games may exhibit errors or unexpected behaviour.”

Select PS4 games will also benefit from the PS5 console’s Game Boost, which may make PS4 games run with a higher or smoother frame rate. For example, Ghost of Tsushima will utilise PS5 Game Boost to support frame rates up to 60fps.

The first PlayStation 5 game file size details suggest that the console’s flagship launch titles could take up a significant chunk of the console’s storage.

As revealed on the updated PlayStation website, first-party launch title Demon’s Souls will require a “minimum” of 66GB SSD space, while Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will require 50GB.

The Ultimate Edition of Miles Morales, which includes a PS5 remaster of Insomniac’s 2018 Spider-Man game, takes up a significant 105GB of memory space.

However, Sony has said PS5 will offer players more flexibility on how they manage their storage on the console, with users able to configure installations and choose to install just a game’s multiplayer or delete the single-player campaign once completed.

PS5 owners will also be able to expand their internal storage with Sony-certified, off-the-shelf SSDs. However, drives capable of PS5’s huge bandwidth will likely be expensive in the short term.

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