The ability to play your old games on a next-generation console is a huge deal in those first few months after launch, when there …
The ability to play your old games on a next-generation console is a huge deal in those first few months after launch, when there aren’t many new games to justify the hundreds of dollars you spent on a shiny new machine. Sony and Microsoft clearly know this as the November 2020 launches of their PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X draw near, having both talked up their backward compatibility features. The two companies have been battling in the console wars for years — Sony since 1994 and Microsoft since 2001 — so they’ve both built up magnificent back catalogs filled with classics. Let’s take a look at how much of each of those libraries you’ll be able to play on the upcoming consoles. Read more: How to avoid PS5 and Xbox Series X preorder FOMO The PS5, which starts at $400 and comes out Nov.12, was designed with PS4 games in mind, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan told CNET in June. Sony’s also required developers to make new PS4 games natively compatible with its next-gen console, and it’s working on making older ones compatible as well. The company released a small list of PS4 games that won’t be playable on the PS5: It noted that these games will carry a «Playable on: PS4 only» warning in the PlayStation Store, so you don’t download them by accident. «We’re expecting backward compatible titles will run at a boosted frequency on PS5 so that they can benefit from higher or more stable frame rates and potentially higher resolutions,» the company said in March. The switch from spinning hard drive to solid-state storage should make them run faster than they did on the PS4, so you won’t be staring into the loading screen abyss as much as you do now. If you subscribe to PS Plus, Sony’s $60 a year online service, you’ll get a selection of PS4 games to play at no extra cost through the PS5-only Plus Collection.
