Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, expressed that the PlayStation 5 will NOT support the first three PlayStation generations.
Ryan was interviewed by Famitsu (which was then translated by Siliconera). He got a question that said: „We were also surprised when we heard that it will have 99% compatibility with PlayStation 4 titles. By the way, will there be compatibility with PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 titles?”
Here’s Ryan’s answer: „We keep in mind the engineering specialized for the PlayStation 5, as we produced the device. In the midst of that, the PlayStation 4 already has 100 million players; we thought they ought to want to play PlayStation 4 titles on the PlayStation 5 as well indeed, so we included compatibility with the PlayStation 4. 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.”
If the sales figures are that important to Sony, we might as well point it out that the PlayStation 2 sold over 155 million units, still being the best-selling console ever. They could have made the PlayStation 5 to do software-based emulation for both the PS1 and the PS2. The former can be emulated by a mobile phone nowadays. They’re probably going to resort to streaming via PlayStation Now (not confirmed yet, but we wrote about a patent…).
About the pricing, Ryan told the Washington Post the following: „For quite some time, in the early part of COVID-19, that picture was far from clear. Just as the supply things were unclear, would there be any market? Would anyone be allowed to go outside? Would any shops be open? This has been a year like no other. But all of that just reinforced our resolve, and the path we determined at the start of the year was the right one.”
The PlayStation 5 Standard Edition and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition will launch on November 12 in America and November 19 in Europe, respectively. Pricing: 500 USD/EUR and 400 USD/EUR, respectively.
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