The PS5 was supposed to be solace that made sure that Sony believed in generations – at least that’s what they said back in May 2020. In case you are also oblivious to it, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO Jim Ryan said to Gamesindustry.biz when questioned “will PS5 games be playable on PS4?”, exactly like Microsoft put forth with Xbox Series X games like Halo Infinite “We have always believed in generations. We believe that when you go through all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, it should include features and benefits that the previous generation doesn’t include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features”.
Ryan Reveals The Truth
Ryan also added “We do believe in generations and whether it’s the DualSense controller, whether it’s the 3D audio, whether it’s multiple ways that the SSD can be used…..we are thinking that it’s time to give Playstation community something new and exciting, something different, that can only be enjoyed on PS5.
Sony’s attitude on console generations was concluded to be something like this – PS5 exclusives were of paramount importance, necessary even and all those who wished to design games for PS5 won’t be clenched back by the older versions. However, right now Ryan’s statements and Sony’s actions don’t quite align together. Shortly after the Showcase Event of PS5 held in September 2020, Sony started to make sure to not bring PS5 games to PS4. This started with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure & Horizon: Forbidden West who were all PS5 exclusives, until later Sony revealed that the trio of these games would be cross-generation after all.
To the news that was like a bombshell for many, Ryan said “We are certain that PS4 community will transition to PS5 at different times and we are happy to announce PS4 versions of some of our exclusives”. Though it’s true that the 3 games make use of PS5’s unique features, the fact that they could be played on PS4 should have been out in the open from the very start. Sony even went far down the line to change the narrative.
What Herman Hulst Has To Say?
God of War: Ragnarok and Gran Turismo 7 were supposed to be PS5 games (exclusively) but that’s not exactly the case. But to the horror of the fans, it might not be the exact case: turns out Herman Hulst (Head of Playstation Studios) says Sony still has a few surprises in the bag. Hermon said: “Where it makes sense to develop a title for both PS4 & PS5, we’ll continue looking for them. If the users want to play it on PS4, then they can. If they want to go on and play on PS5, that game will be available there as well”.
What makes Sony’s actions even worse is that Microsoft was criticized for acknowledging that Xbox One would receive Xbox series X 1st party exclusives like HALO INFINITE, when the games were launched. The company even said that Xbox One customers would get the exclusive games for a year and then many believed that because of something like this Xbox Series X & Xbox Series S would be deprived of the privileges or else they might not be experiencing true next-generation stuff. Though that might have been heartbreaking the customers were well aware of what they were paying for.
Sony, however, has not been so upfront about it because it’s been more than one experience when they have held back from the fans, only to reveal the true details later. This definitely is naïve and very dishonest and actually feels like they cheated on us.
