Don't Expect To See PlayStation 5 Exclusives On PS4
At the dawn of a new hardware generation, console makers are presented an interesting problem: what do you do when a new console launch is essentially fragmenting your userbase? Usually, console makers like Sony and Microsoft will continue supporting previous-generation hardware well into the new generation, but generally, they stop making exclusive games for those platforms. Microsoft, however, plans to do something a little different with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Microsoft has suggested that in the early days of the next generation, it will make exclusive titles available on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X. Details on that are somewhat slim, but we know of one game that will be on both platforms: Halo Infinite. Earlier this year, Microsoft's Matty Booty said that Microsoft's first-party titles would be playable on both Xbox Series X and Xbox One for at least a year after launch.
Will Sony do something similar? It doesn't sound like it – in a lengthy interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony's Jim Ryan indicated that the company is going in another direction, saying that Sony is looking to give fans something "that can really only be enjoyed on PS5."
"We have always said that we believe in generations," Ryan said. "We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features."
"We do believe in generations, and whether it's the DualSense controller, whether it's the 3D audio, whether it's the multiple ways that the SSD can be used... we are thinking that it is time to give the PlayStation community something new, something different, that can really only be enjoyed on PS5."
So, if you're a PlayStation 4 owner, don't expect to see PlayStation 5 exclusives make the jump to PS4. Sony is making an interesting break from Microsoft here, especially since the PlayStation 4 has joined the elusive 100 million sales club that only a few consoles belong to. That's a huge user base, and we'll just have to wait and see how Sony decides to support it once the PS5 is on shelves.