Sony revealed a lot of crucial details about the PS5 yesterday, from its launch lineup to the price it will be releasing for (and when it will be releasing), but something that caught nearly just as much attention was, in fact, related to their ageing current-gen console. The PS4 is on its last legs, ready to give way to its shinier successor- but it seems Sony isn’t done with it yet.
Surprisingly, many upcoming major first party releases that were all previously though to be PS5 exclusive games (and even flagship ones, in a couple of cases) were confirmed to be cross-gen titles, with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Horizon Forbidden West all confirmed to be launching for both PS5 and PS4.
For a company that has, on multiple occasions over the last few months, said that the delivery of cutting edge next-gen exclusives will be the centerpiece of its strategy with the PS5, that has been a surprising development, to say the very least. And Sony, it seems, has every intention to keep the PS4 around for some time to come.
Speaking with The Washington Post, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan said that the PS4 will continue to be “incredibly important” to Sony for the coming 3-4 years, owing to the console’s large install base.
“The PS4 community will continue to be incredibly important to us for three or four years,” Ryan said. “Many will transition to PS5, we hope if we do our job well, but tens of millions will still be engaged with the PS4.”
In the past, Sony has continued to support its older consoles for some years even after newer ones have released, with the PS2 and PS3 (the former especially) both having seen extensive support for several years after their respective successors had launched. It isn’t surprising, given the success of the PS4, that Sony wants to keep it around for a while longer yet.
Sony has, of course, recently spoken about having more in store for the PS4 as well- whether that means continued manufacturing support and support from third party partners or more first party flagship games being cross-gen remains to be seen. Thus far, there are several games in that category that are confirmed as PS5 exclusives – including the likes of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Demon’s Souls, and the recently announced God of War sequel – so it could go either way.