PS5 will play ‘almost all of the top 100 PS4 games’ at launch

PlayStation 5 will be backwards compatible with the majority of the leading PS4 games when the next-gen console debuts later this year.

Mark Cerny, the lead system architect for both consoles as well as PS Vita, announced new details about PS5 backwards compatibility on Wednesday.

“Backwards compatibility was handled masterfully by AMD,” he said during a PS5 reveal video which you can rewatch in full below. “They treated it as a key need throughout the design process.”

Cerny later added: “Running PS4 and PS4 titles at boosted frequencies has also added complexity. The boost is truly massive this time around and some game code just can’t handle it. Testing has to be done on a title by title basis.

“Results are excellent though. We recently took a look at the top 100 PlayStation 4 titles as ranked by play time and we’re expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PlayStation 5.”

Update: In an follow-up post on the PlayStation Blog, Hideaki Nishino, senior vice president, platform planning and management at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said: “With more than 4,000 games published on PS4, we will continue the testing process and expand backwards compatibility coverage over time.”

Update 2, March 20: Sony has said it believes “the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5” in the future.

Original story continues: Sony also revealed the official PlayStation 5 hardware specifications on Wednesday, and confirmed new features related to expandable storage and 3D audio.

It was reported in February that Sony is struggling to determine the PlayStation 5 price due to a shortage of components resulting in increased manufacturing costs.

Microsoft released the full Xbox Series X hardware specifications earlier this week, and shared new details about Xbox Series X backwards compatibility too, including how older games will look and play better on the next-gen console.

As previously reported, Xbox Series X will be backwards compatible with existing Xbox One accessories and games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles.

Improved resolutions and frame rates, and HDR support for backwards compatible games are proposed as system level features and the latter could be applied across the entire Xbox library, Microsoft said.

Xbox Series X is also scheduled to launch during the 2020 holiday season.