PS5 will be backwards compatible with top 100 PS4 games at launch

PS5 backwards compatibility graphic — The PS5 will have at least 100 games at launch (pic: Sony)

Sony is going all in when it comes to backwards compatibility, with a promise that top games like GTA 5 and Fortnite will work from day one.

The PlayStation 5 presentation on Wednesday may have been a lot more techy than some people were expecting but it did offer some important nuggets of information, especially with regards to backwards compatibility.

That’s a subject Sony has never been very keen on before, but after Microsoft turned it into a must-have feature they promised that the PlayStation 5 would be able to run PlayStation 4 games, at least eventually.

This week was the first time they went into any detail, with system architect Mark Cerny stating that the top 100 PlayStation 4 games, ranked by playtime, should all be compatible at launch.

Top 10 PS4 games by play time

Grand Theft Auto 5 (55.7 million players)
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 (54.5 million players)
Fortnite (39.4 million players)
FIFA 18 (32.8 million players)
FIFA 17 (30.0 million players)
FIFA 16 (28.3 million players)
Call Of Duty: WWII (26.6 million players)
Minecraft (25.3 million players)
Rocket League (23.1 million players)
Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare (22.1 million players)

We’re not sure that list has ever been made public, but this is probably it or something close to it, with the short story being that Grand Theft Auto 5, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and FIFA are all well covered.

That’s still less backwards compatible titles than the Xbox One, but that started off slow and added new games over time, so this would be getting off to a faster start – although it may still be beaten by the Xbox Series X.

Cerny went into a little more detail on the process, praising chip manufacturer AMD and revealing that backwards compatibility had been designated a priority throughout the design process of the PlayStation 5.

‘Running PS4 titles at boosted frequencies has also added complexity’, said Cerny. ‘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.’

The last bit about testing suggests that the games aren’t just being thrown out there and that there shouldn’t be too many glitches or problems, as has happened with backwards compatibility in the past.