One of the big talking points going into the next generation of consoles is what type of backwards compatibility will the two pieces of hardware come packing? Right now, it looks like the Xbox Series X will support of every previous Xbox console, however, the support may not be universal. Meanwhile, there's been rumors and reports suggesting the PS5 will also play the games from all the consoles that came before it, but there's also been scuttlebutt its backwards compatibility will only run as a deep as PS4. Further, there's even been suggestions that it will support PS4, PS2, and PS1 games, but not PS3 because of it's unique architecture.

That all said, during a recent earnings call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot commented on both of the next-gen consoles, and their backwards compatibility capabilities. And according to the Ubisoft boss, both will be running "almost all the back catalog of the previous consoles."

"Those consoles [PS5 and Xbox Series X] will be running almost all the back catalog of the previous consoles," said the Ubisoft CEO. "It will be something new in the industry. It will help the old generations to continue to be big consoles on the market for years to come."

Now, it's a bit unclear whether "previous consoles" means only PS4 or Xbox One or if it means literally every previous console that came before the the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It presumably means the former, but unfortunately the CEO didn't clarify what he meant. That said, what's interesting here is that -- whatever the case -- they won't be playing every single game, which rules out universal backwards compatibility. Of course, this was always a pipe dream, but it was a very attractive and exciting possibility.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are set to release this holiday season. At the moment of publishing, there's been no word of a precise release date or a price point for either console. Further, it's unclear how extensive and robust the backwards compatibility will be for both consoles.



Posted: Feb 11, 2020 11:05 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2020/02/08/ps5-xbox-series-x-backwards-compatibility-games-ubisoft/