X

Ubisoft says PS5 won't be backward compatible with PS3, PS2 or PS1

It seems that Sony's PlayStation 5 will only be compatible with some PS4 games.

Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
Expertise Home Tips, including cooking, cleaning and appliances hacks Credentials
  • National Silver Azbee Award for Impact/Investigative Journalism; National Gold Azbee Award for Online Single Topic Coverage by a Team; National Bronze Azbee Award for Web Feature Series
See full bio
Alison DeNisco Rayome
captura-de-pantalla-2020-06-11-a-las-16-11-43.png

Sony's approach with the PS5 differs from Microsoft's with the upcoming Xbox Series X.

 Screenshot by Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET

The upcoming PlayStation 5 won't be backward compatible with the PS3, PS2 or original PlayStation, according to a Ubisoft support page first spotted by our sister site GameSpot. That means you won't be able to play games from those previous consoles on the new system, which will be released later this year.

This doesn't come as a big surprise, though.

"PS5 has been designed to play PS4 games," PlayStation boss Jim Ryan told CNET in June. "We're going through the process with the publishers and developers testing that rather exhaustive library of over 4,000 games." Sony has also required developers to make new PS4 games natively compatible with its next-gen console, and it's working on making older ones compatible as well.

Sony's approach with the PS5 differs from Microsoft's with the upcoming Xbox Series X, which will play original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games when it comes out this November.

We've reached out to Sony for more information, and will update this story once we've heard back. 

Read more: Game subscription services: Read this before you choose one

Watch this: Expect PS5 shortages this holiday season