Game company Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially confirmed that the next-gen console PlayStation 5 will not be backwards compatible with the older consoles.
Specifically, the PS3, PS2, and PS1 games will not be compatible with the PS5, according to SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan in an exclusive interview with Famitsu (translated by Siliconera).
Here is his statement about the topic:
Famitsu: We were also surprised when we heard that it will have 99% compatibility with PS4 titles. By the way, will there be compatibility with PS1, PS2, and PS3 titles?
Jim Ryan: We keep in mind the engineering specialized for the PS5, as we produced the device. In the midst of that, the PS4 already has 100 million players; we thought they ought to want to play PS4 titles on the PS5 as well indeed, so we included compatibility with the PS4. While implementing that, we also focused our efforts on taking in the high-speed SSD and the new controller DualSense at the same time. So, unfortunately, we couldn’t reach the implementation of such compatibilities.
There were rumors about the PS5’s inability to be backwards compatible with older games and with this statement, it just got confirmed. At least “99 percent” of PS4 titles will be compatible with the next-gen console.
PlayStation 5 will launch on Nov. 12 in select countries. The rest of the world will get it on Nov. 19.