The next-generation of consoles continues to come into focus. Both Microsoft and Sony have shared a lot of details on their new consoles in recent weeks, and one element that is resonating particularly strongly with consumers is their different approaches to backwards compatibility--or, at least, the messaging of how this much-loved feature will be implemented. Right now, based on what we know today, Microsoft's Xbox Series X has a huge advantage over Sony's PlayStation 5 in terms of overall list of supported backwards compatible games and messaging about the feature.
What We Know
Sony's "deep dive" on the PlayStation 5 this week saw PlayStation system architect Mark Cerny giving an extremely developer-focused talk about the technical specifics of the next-gen system. On the subject of backwards compatibility, Cerny mentioned that Sony expected nearly 100 of the most popular PS4 games to be playable on PS5 at launch this holiday.
A subsequent post on the PlayStation Blog offered some additional insight. It reported that "almost" all of the top 100 PS4 titles ranked by play time will be playable at launch for PS5. Sony also stated that there have been more than 4000 titles published on PS4 to date. Doing some quick math on those numbers, it would appear that 2.5 percent of the PS4's catalog will be playable on PS5 at launch. Sony said it is currently in the "testing process" with the aim for expanding the backwards compatibility catalog over time, so the library is sure to grow, but right now it seems likely that some of your favorite PS4 games won't play on PS5 at launch.
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