Amazingly, the PlayStation 4 has been in our lives for ten years, considering how long a PlayStation console typically lasts. However, there’s something distinct about the PS4’s ongoing success. The PS4 peacefully coexists as a still-viable alternative next to its newer, flashier brother instead of feeling like it’s in its twilight like the PS1, 2, or 3 did when they turned ten years old. That certainly made sense when the PS4 was easier to get hold of during those dark epidemic days, but even now, about three years after the PS5’s release, there are still a few significant ways in which the PS4 can dominate the PS5.
Unique Themes
Yes, Sony, it’s great that each game on the PS5 XMB creates a tiny hub with its updates, music, and other features. However, one of the best things about owning a PS4 is still unmatched by this. The PSN was flooded with unique dynamic themes, each with animated backgrounds, moving images, background music, and custom icons. You could even upload your wallpaper and create whatever kind of background you wanted.
Many great and bad articles must be corrected when you look for a theme. A custom theme was one of the few perks that made preordering worthwhile. There was a particular collection of Persona 5s, and they were breathtakingly lovely. The concept of the Untitled Geese Game was quite clever—every time you moved up and down the XMB, the geese would steal a random object. Your PS4 started to feel like your own. With the PS5, that capability is significantly reduced.
Remote Play on the PS Vita
The PlayStationPortal, essentially a DualSense controller mounted on a customized screen and capable of connecting to the PS5 for remote play via strong Wi-Fi, was only released by Sony this past month. That might be a wise purchase if you travel frequently, but it’s still inferior to the PS4 and that crappy, overlooked little device called the PS Vita.
Once upon a time, you could have purchased a full-fledged gaming powerhouse for the same price as the PlayStation Portal in 2023. Not only could it play games from its own criminally underappreciated library and engage in cross-play with the PS4, making you even less dependent on the home system, but it could also function as a second screen for titles like LittleBigPlanet 3, Dead Nation, and Wolfenstein: The New Order. A vital component of that experience was the Tearaway second-screen feature, mainly because Vita’s camera joined in on the fun.
Furthermore, if you owned the variant of the Vita that had cell service, you weren’t dependent on Wi-Fi, which seemed extravagant at the time but would be a fantastic addition to a portable device today. With its abundant backbone, the PS5 offers remote play capabilities. The PS4 boasted a technological feat.
Blu-ray Playback in 3D
The failure of the home theater business to mainstream 3D TV is mostly not Sony’s fault. However, it is Sony’s fault that, one generation later, they stole the version of the game that was most accessible to players.
With the release of a patch in early 2014, the PS4 can play 3D Blu-rays. Initially, only a tiny audience with 3D TVs could benefit from this. That all changed when Sony revealed the PSVR and enabled the headset to handle 3D Blu-ray video—an excellent move. For movie buffs, the PSVR was already a tiny device that was underappreciated since it allowed users to view movies in a way similar to having their own personal IMAX.
The ability to play 3D movies changed everything, and all those unused 3D Blu-rays lying about the store suddenly received a new lease of life. Even if the number of new ones has decreased to a trickle, they still happen—just this year, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo and Avatar: The Way of Water both had 3D disc releases through Arrow.
Sadly, those who update to the PS5 cannot utilize them. Sony still needs to add 3D Blu-ray support to the PS5, even to view the discs, even though the PSVR2 has far more powerful hardware than the PS5. Everyone’s 3D Blu-ray collection then returns to gathering dust. Sadly, movies are not alone in the PSVR orphanage.
PS VR Games Original
It is a well-known fact that VR is a complicated hardware medium. Therefore, the PSVR 2 would have trouble running PSVR titles. After all, the platform is a complete redesign of the original hardware. Even so, it’s still a bit of a kick in the teeth to discover that switching to the stunning new headset for the PS5 means giving up the entire catalog of the first PSVR, with only a handful of those titles receiving updates specifically for the PS5/PSVR 2.
Although the original headset is theoretically backward compatible with the PS5, it requires an adapter for the camera that is difficult to find, is incompatible with the DualSense controllers on the PS5, and requires two headsets to be used to fully enjoy the fantastic world of VR games on the PlayStation. Combined, these factors give the original headset a somewhat unwanted feeling when used outside its intended PS4 environment.
PT
And last but not least, in many people’s hearts is PT. PT is a horror masterpiece, a dragon many developers have been chasing over the past seven years, even as a truncated demo for a game that will sadly never be released. The only ones with an endangered gaming history are those fortunate enough to have the game downloaded. After Hideo Kojima was fired from Konami, it was annoying enough to be able to obtain his sadly lost Silent Hills demo. But managing to hang onto a playable copy of the game has been an ongoing corporate game of hide-and-seek, as there was no way to even re-download it from PSN after it was delisted.
Immediately following the system’s introduction, many of us discovered that the game had been effectively forbidden from operating on the PS5, which was one of the first times the system broke our hearts. It’s also not a technical issue, as certain gaming press members stated that the game was functioning flawlessly on PS5 review units until the launch day when it was locked out. One thing stood out above the rest, even though it’s unclear if Konami or Sony made the decision: if you were fortunate enough to have a copy of PT saved on an external drive, and you tried to open it on a PS5, all you get is a short message saying that the game is only compatible with the PlayStation 4 (yes, you read that right).