A lot of you will have picked up a fair few titles on the console of your choice, so you’ll be glad to hear that Microsoft and Sony are putting in the necessary efforts to ensure a gentle transition to the next-gen. Both companies will be making backwards compatibility a real priority, even going as far as to add visual improvements to some older titles.
PS5
90% of the PS4’s back catalogue will be playable on the PS5. Unlike its direct competitor, Sony has not held back when it comes to backwards compatibility with the preceding generation, which, as we learn more about it, makes the prospect of playing older releases on the PS5 all that more appealing. Incidentally, this hasn’t prevented the announcement made on backwards compatibility during the most recent PS5 conference from ruffling any feathers, forcing the Playstation twitter account to release clarifications about this feature. Everything is a bit clearer now, even if save transfers should be treated on a “case-by-case” basis. Maneater and Yakuza: Like a Dragon will received free upgrades on PS5, but their saves cannot be transferred from PS4 to PS5. However, that will not be the case for Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Remastered.
With the conference on the Playstation 5, we were finally able to have news about the backward compatibility of the console.
Xbox Series X
Another area where Microsoft holds the upper hand: with the Xbox One, Microsoft fully committed themselves into backwards compatibility, and with the upcoming arrival of the Series X and S, they are showing no signs of slowing down, with games receiving patchless improvements on the new consoles. The team at Digital Foundry were able to try out all this and the result was very impressive: besides some slight hiccups, the majority of the games held a stable 60fps and featured much shorter loading times, including titles that really struggled on the One. Keep in mind that Series S only emulates the One S-version of games (with improvements), while the Series X emulates the One X, as it can be a bit unclear at times.
U.S. publisher Microsoft unveils details on the backwards compatibility of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Is it really 100% backward compatible instead of PS5?
