Thankfully, the PlayStation 5 supports backward-compatibility for the vast majority of PS4 games, offering improved load times, enhanced visuals, and higher FPS. Unfortunately, while there are many, many old titles that can be supported on the PS5, Sony has made it clear that there are a few that are not. Thankfully that number is small.
A support on the official PlayStation website originally specified ten games that would not work with the PS5, but as of December, the list shrunk down to eight. The good news is that this list does not include any extremely big, popular titles, though it does include some VR content. As most people who have gotten a PS5 already are aware, the most popular games to play are perfectly compatible. Joe’s Diner fans aren’t so lucky, however. It’s possible that some of the games on the list right now will be updated to work later, but as of right now, this is the reality.
On top of that, while it seemed like those eight titles would be the only ones that didn’t work, Ubisoft also revealed that some of their games were allegedly incompatible, for various reasons. Those are also listed below, and they not only include a number of VR games, but surprisingly, several titles from the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Ubisoft has since removed a post listing them from its website. All of those particular Ubisoft games are marked by an asterisk in the list below.
According to reports, these games from Ubisoft manage to boot up, but they are likely to experience serious problems throughout the course of gameplay. For reasons such as that, it’s probably a good idea for fans to hold off on playing until some future updates fix these compatibility issues. Naturally, this isn’t an issue facing all Ubisoft games, just some of these older titles. All new Ubisoft games run perfectly fine.
That said, many people have noted various other bugs and glitches in non-Ubisoft games on the PS5 as well. This includes a rather notorious visual glitch in Batman: Return to Arkham. These types of glitches are not something that everyone will experience, however, it’s worth noting that you may want to keep your PS4 around for a bit longer: until most of these issues are ironed out, at any rate.
PS5-Incompatible PS4 Games
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate*
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India*
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China*
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia*
- Risk*
- Star Trek Bridge Crew*
- Werewolves Within*
- Space Junkies*
- Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma – Volume One
- TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 2
- Just Deal With It!
- Robinson: The Journey
- We Sing
- Hitman Go: Definitive Edition
- Shadwen
- Joe’s Diner
Outside of these few games, it’s not hard to play your old PS4 games on the PS5. In fact, all you have to do for viable backward-compatible games on PS5 is put it into the disc drive, download it from PSN, or transfer the game from your PS4’s external storage to the PS5. If there’s a PS5 upgrade available for the game, Sony has provided details for that process, which you can find on their website. That said, some PS4 games will still see performance boosts as far as graphics are concerned without a PS5 upgrade thanks to Game Boost.
Naturally, your PS Plus saves that are being kept in the cloud will transfer from PS4 to PS5. So, if you have a game on PS4 that you haven’t beaten yet or still want to play with a save file, all you have to do is install the game on the PS5, and you’ll be able to pick up where you left off as if you hadn’t changed consoles at all. This will primarily be noteworthy for any games included via the PlayStation Plus collection, as the digital versions of those games will be available right away on PS5. On the other hand, you must have a PS Plus subscription in order to use cloud saves. It’s worth noting that Xbox doesn’t do players dirty like this, allowing anyone with a free Xbox Live account to make use of cloud saves.
Unfortunately, that kind of thing doesn’t stop at cloud saves. While you’ll be able to keep using a DualShock 4 controller to play your PS4 games, you won’t be able to play PS5 games with them. PlayStation Move and PlayStation VR Aim controllers will be supported, as well. You’ll want to keep your PS4’s camera available since you’ll need it to play with those games. Apparently, the camera of the PS5 will serve other purposes, though it’s not clear what its ultimate intended use will be.
On the other hand, Microsoft is doing things a bit differently. Not only can players use cloud saves without having to pay any extra money, but Xbox One controllers will be able to play with the Xbox Series X/S and every game available on the platform. On top of that, there will be no exclusive Xbox Series X/S titles for a year or two, so every game coming out in that timeframe will be playable on Xbox One as well as the Series X/S. Finally, all of the games from the Xbox One, including backward-compatible titles from the 360 and the original Xbox, will be playable on the Series X/S. The only exception to this is Kinect games, though those were short-lived anyway.
It’s definitely a major disparity in business practices, and we definitely think it’s something worth considering for anyone debating between choosing one or the other. Of course, both consoles have exclusive series that you won’t be able to play on their opponent, so at the end of the day, that may be the most important thing to consider. All in all, both consoles are facing some problems soon after their launch, but their companies are both focusing on fixing those issues as swiftly as they can. Hopefully, they’ll be at full force sooner rather than later.
