Full Backwards Compatibility For The PS5 Could Be Impossible, Says Dev

The upcoming PlayStation 5 has been rumoured to have full backwards compatibility (being able to play everything from PS1 games to PS4), but so far, Sony has only confirmed the console will be able to play “the majority” of PS4 games. Now the technical director at Cradle Games (makers of Hellpoint) has spoken out on how he believes full backwards compatibility isn’t on the cards for the PS5.

As reported by Gaming Bolt, Cradle Games’ Marc-Andre Jutras had the following to say:

Credit: Sony

“As a gamer, it’s hard to figure out what’s the big deal with this. How come PS5 isn’t backward compatible with PS4, 3, 2, 1? If I can find some emulator for all those, and the new consoles are as powerful as a good gaming PC, then there’s no reason for all those games to not run, even with glitches. I wish they could just find a way to deal with it and just cover everything, even if not perfectly.”

However, Jutras explained the situation a little further, explaining that what consumers don’t see is the legal aspect of backward compatibility.

Credit: Sony

He continued: “As a developer, however, I can see where some legal stuff could get a bit blurry, especially if the goal is to have those older gamers sold in some stores.

“Some companies don’t exist anymore and licenses of those titles might not be so easy to figure out. I also understand that older consoles might have some form of hardware DRM that could prevent newer consoles from reading older disks.”

Credit: Sony

He then added: “To be honest, I just wish backward compatibility wasn’t a novel thing and just an expected feature, covering all titles.”

For me, backwards compatibility is a huge deal, and considering just how popular nostalgic games for the PlayStation 1 and 2 still are to this day, it’ll be a massive blow for many gamers if the PS5 can’t support this.

Whether or not it can remains to be seen, but with a release window of Holiday 2020, we won’t have long to find out!

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Featured Image Credit: Sony