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Sony has told developers working on PS4 titles that their games must be compatible with the PS5 as of July 13th (via Eurogamer).
The company has updated its developer documentation, which now features a requirement that developers confirm they have tested that their game is compatible with PS5 hardware.
Sony will contact developers individually with details on how to test for PS5 compatibility, in order of their project’s release date. To be considered “compatible,” a game’s submission code must run without issues on the next-gen hardware, and offer the same features on PS5 as on PS4.
As for updates to existing games, if a game was submitted to Sony before July 13th, any further patches or remasters are not required to be compatible with the PS5, but Sony notes that it is “strongly recommended” that they are regardless.
Any game submitted after the July 13th deadline must stay compatible with the PS5 throughout development – any future patch to the game must maintain forward compatibility.
Sony are not the only ones to be focused on forward-compatibility. Speaking to MCV/DEVLEOP back in January, Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Booty explained Microsoft’s approach to forwards (and backwards) compatibility in the next generation of hardware.
“As our content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games, sort of like PC, will play up and down that family of devices,” Booty explained. “We want to make sure that if someone invests in Xbox between now and [Series X] that they feel that they made a good investment and that we’re committed to them with content.”
