Sad news: the PS4 controller will not be able to be used for PlayStation 5 games

Sony has released news that future PlayStation 5 owners didn’t want to hear. The current DualShock 4 controller will be semi-functional on the new console.

Sony has just released new information about the compatibility of the PlayStation 4 peripherals on the PlayStation 5 and things are, except for one "little thing", quite positive. In short, all gaming control plugins running on the PS4 will also be supported for the PS5. This includes steering wheels, arcade controllers and the like. All headphones / headsets that can be connected via USB or a 3.5mm slot will also work. The ancient PlayStation 3 era Move controllers will also work.

But there is a rather big "but". Namely, it was revealed that the DualShock 4 controller (this one for PlayStation 4) on PlayStation 5 will only be able to be used for games from PlayStation 4. For PS5 versions of games, only the new DualSense controller will be used.

And it’s a slap in the face to PlayStation fans.

Namely, technically speaking in the context of controls, nothing with DualShock 4 would be impossible in games for the PlayStation 5. If we ignore blowing into the microphone. That is, DualSense has no more keys than DualShock 4, there is no other key or anything like that. In other words, at the hardware level, it would be entirely possible to use it for PlayStation 5 games as well. However, Sony has decided to block this possibility from the software side. Because they want PS5 games to be experienced only with the new vibrations of the DualSense controller.

I say it’s a slap in the face because the official controllers for PlayStation consoles aren’t cheap, and the various tricks with vibrations and triggers won’t have any impact on gameplay. This would make the whole idea of ​​cross-play fall into the water because then it would not make sense for players with PS4 and PS5 consoles to play together if one has an advantage over the other because of the controller. And this is how players are deprived of local multiplayer with PS4 controllers due to some vibrations.

For example, imagine a scenario that you want to play Fifu 21 on a PS5 with a friend who has a PS4. In case you both have a game, you can play it together - each from his own house. But if you want to play it on the new PS5 console, you can only play the PS4 version, because if the PS4 version is upgraded on the PS5 console then you lose the ability to play with DualShock 4.

By comparison, on the Xbox Series X the old controllers will work just like the new one, and the new one will work on the old console.

Among other important information, it is worth mentioning that the PlayStation VR / PlayStation camera will not work with the PlayStation 5 right out of the box. That is, the PSVR and camera will only work with an additional adapter that Sony will share with all PlayStation VR owners. How exactly - is not yet known. I guess we will have to take pictures of our VR devices with fresh newspapers and send them as proof to get the necessary adapter.