Sony Says New PS4 Games From July Onward Must Be PS5 Compatible

Internal communications between Sony and the company’s partners have shown Sony directing developers that all PlayStation 4 games submitted for certification from July 13th onward must be compatible with the PlayStation 5. This doesn’t include games set to be released after that day but rather games which would be submitted to Sony after July 13th, so it doesn’t include Ghost of Tsushima or any other PlayStation 4 games we may know release dates for after that date. The news might not mean a great deal now since we won’t know exactly when games are submitted for certification and the PlayStation 5 is still months away, but it’s positive news for those already planning to buy the console who want to make sure most of their current-gen games will be supported there.

Eurogamer reported on the PlayStation 5 news after seeing communications on PlayStation’s internal partner site, the outlet said. On that site, there were reportedly talks of developers having to check off that their games submitted for certification after the above date had been tested for compatibility with the PlayStation 5 systems.

Again, this doesn’t mean that games releasing after July 13th must abide by these guidelines. Ghost of Tsushima is the next big PlayStation 4 game that falls soon after that date but has long been submitted to Sony for certification by now, so the rules don’t apply there. Eurogamer added that it’s also heard Ghost of Tsushima would be supported on the PlayStation 5 which makes sense given that it’s one of Sony’s exclusives, so those planning on picking that game up shouldn’t have to worry about that.

It’s a positive sign for the PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility potential as well as games that’ll be planned for both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, but it’s still not much to go off of compared to what’s been talked about for the Xbox Series X. We know that the PlayStation 5 will support backwards compatibility for a number of the most-played PlayStation 4 games, but what games those are and how the other PlayStation generations will be handled isn’t known. By comparison, Xbox has been much more vocal about the backwards compatibility features touted on the Xbox Series X. Xbox’s next-gen console is said to be compatible with “thousands” of games when it launches, and we know of several features it’ll support to enhance those games.

Sony is expected to hold a PlayStation 5-focused event next week, so perhaps we’ll hear more about its plans for the new console then.