Sony Reportedly Mandates Developers to Ensure PS5 Support for All PS4 Games Submitted After Mid-July

Though Sony’s stance on backward compatibility in the PS5 hasn’t been as strong as Microsoft’s with the Xbox Series X, they have certainly been taking steps to ensure that at the very least the majority of the PS4’s library is playable on their upcoming next-gen console when it launches this Holiday. To that end, a new report by Eurogamer states that they’ve taken more measures to ensure that late PS4 games do not miss out on PS5 support.

As per the report, new developer documentation released by Sony on PlayStation’s internal Partner website states that all developers submitting their games to Sony for certification on the PS4 must ensure that those games are also forward compatible with the PS5, making use of an option that was reportedly added to the PS4 development kit in April.

More specifically, Sony will deem PS4 games “compatible” with the PS5 if they not just run on the next-gen system, but run without issues and provide all the features that they do while running on the PS4. This, according to the report, is applicable to all games submitted to Sony on or after July 13. It’s worth noting that submitted and released are not the same- games are usually submitted well in advance of their launch.

Meanwhile, Sony also mentions guidelines for patches to games that have already been released on the PS4. If the game in question was submitted before July 13, patches don’t necessarily need to have PS5 support (even though it is “strongly recommended”), but patches for all games submitted after July 13 have to include said support. Essentially, this means that a game that has been made compatible with the PS5 has to remain compatible with the system.

Elsewhere in the report, Eurogamer also mentions that upcoming PS4 first party behemoths The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima – even though they were submitted well before July 13 – are already compatible with the PS5.

Meanwhile, if you’re more concerned about native PS5 games rather than older titles running on the next-gen system, it’s looking likelier that we’ll be seeing many of those in the imminent future. According to recent reports, Sony have a PS5 games showcase planned for June 3. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for any and all updates.