PS5 will now warn players launching PS4 versions of cross-gen games

Sony has added a warning to PS5 consoles to help prevent players accidentally launching PS4 versions of cross-gen games.

Many new games – including Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – are compatible on both PS4 and PS5 systems, leaving some players unsure how to launch a specific version of a title.

Now, players launching cross-gen games on PS5 will be met with a message reading: “You're about to play the PS4 version of this game. Do you want to switch to the PS5 version?", followed by an option to download/play the PS4 version or switch to the PS5 version. 

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It’s a welcome update, spotted by @Tidux on Twitter, which fixes the need for players to navigate complex UI menus in order to discern which version of a game is being played.

New? #PS5Share pic.twitter.com/JEY2BU37H4December 22, 2020

The issue seemed particularly pertinent to those with digital iterations of cross-gen titles. Purchasing a digital cross-gen game – FIFA 21, for example – automatically prompts the system to download both the PS4 and PS5 versions from the PS Store, leaving many players confused as to which version they were playing when launching the game from the home screen.

Now, though, Sony seems to have addressed the issue.

Microsoft solution

Cross-gen confusion isn’t an issue limited to Sony consoles. Xbox players have also encountered the complexity of ensuring which version of a game is which, although Microsoft seems to have landed on a better solution. 

Xbox Series X (and Xbox Series S) consoles are equipped with Smart Delivery, a system that assigns a badge to signify the particular generation of a game in a player’s library. What’s more, the Xbox will automatically launch the best version of a game when a title is selected, regardless of the generation chosen. 

So, if an Xbox Series X player starts the Xbox One version of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the system will automatically switch to the optimized newer-gen version. 

In any case, Sony’s slightly clunkier solution will nevertheless go some way to preventing the head-scratching that comes from busy, multi-gen game libraries.

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Via IGN