those who played Forbidden West Horizon ordinary PS5 console will have noticed that the visually stunning game was clearly designed with the intention of showing what Sony’s next-gen console really can do. But not everyone was so lucky.
Despite being released over 15 months ago, the PS5 still feels like a rare commodity. One of the few saving graces was the fact that most PlayStation exclusives had side-by-side releases for the PS5 and the PS4.
Although there were some obvious exceptions, namely, Devolution, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apartand Souls of Demonsthe lack of genuine PS5 exclusives has allowed those of us who still haven’t been able to buy a ps5 to still enjoy state-of-the-art games.
You can still settle for a PS4
Equal to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West proves once again that the PS4 does a decent job of handling high-end titles. And it seems gamers still trust the older console too. According to GamesIndustry.biz, one-third of Horizon Forbidden West sales were for the PS4 version of the game.
Before Forbidden West was released, a significant part of Guerilla Games’ marketing was used to assure audiences that the sequel would be still be visually impressive for users using older hardware. Judging by the PS4’s sales figures, this certainly seemed to address concerns of whether the older console would be able to run the game’s visual aspects smoothly and helped alleviate fears of another console. Cyberpunk 2077-like disaster.
Naturally, I remained skeptical until I got a chance to play the game on my original PS4 and the slightly newer PS4 Slim, given the PS4’s significantly more dated graphics capabilities. And yet, having played Horizon Forbidden West, I didn’t miss the PS5 version.
Of course, trying out the game on PS5 would have been an entirely different beast (and hopefully I can get there soon). But personally, even though I had to look at a loading screen a little longer than usual and only managed to run the game at 30fps, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the older hardware handled Forbidden West. it’s not like the The PS5 version doesn’t have its problemsany.
But the PS4 is on borrowed time
While you can fully enjoy Horizon Forbidden West on a PS4, as well as future titles like Gran Turismo 7, we shouldn’t expect this to be the case for all future AAA titles. While many developers will likely continue to support the PS4 for now, we’re already starting to see that some of Sony’s biggest releases won’t make it to the old console.
Insomniac Games recently confirmed that the long-awaited Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Marvel’s Wolverine It will be exclusive to PS5. Both games aren’t expected to release until sometime in 2023, so hopefully that will at least give Sony more time to make sure people can actually buy a PS5 when those games come out.
After all, the PS5 is a dramatic improvement over the PS4 in several key ways. Compared for PS4 Pro, PS5 offers a substantial upgrade in terms of load times, visual fidelity, audio quality and you can also enjoy the Unique DualSense controller features, which continue to be supported by the developers. There’s also emotion around PSVR 2that could be released later this year.
Even the PS5’s ability to read Ultra HD Blu-ray means that the physical copy of Horizon Forbidden West for PlayStation 5 only requires one disc compared to the two discs required for PS4 version.
Chip shortages helped the PS4 stay relevant
As much as I love my trusty PS4, I can confidently say that I would be gathering dust in the back of a closet if I could get my hands on a PS5.
Sometime after the release of a new generation of consoles, there comes a time when continuing to persist with the previous generation’s hardware becomes next to impossible. This moment can come in two ways: either the upgraded hardware becomes too tempting for consumers to ignore or because game developers end up stopping releasing games for the old console.
Unfortunately, due to the global chip shortage, the PS5 hasn’t reached that point yet. Even now, in 2022, it looks like Sony is supposedly looking to produce up to a million new PS4 units to make up for the lack of PS5 consoles. Guerrilla Games appears to be in the same boat, offering players who purchased Horizon Forbidden West for PS4 the chance to upgrade your copy to the PS5 version for freesomething it could have done if Sony could swap more units of its new console.
Yet, considering how It’s hard to buy a PS4, it’s hard to gauge how much that would help newcomers buy a console and, in turn, help Sony maintain its market share. It got so bad that opting for one Horizon Zero Dawn board game instead, it doesn’t even seem like such a crazy idea.
It’s pretty obvious that if it weren’t for the pandemic, Sony’s latest console would have spread like wildfire. All things considered, the PS5 still managed to sell more than 10 million units in just over a year – most impressively, it has reached this milestone faster than ps4. But at the end of the day, milestones like this aren’t very comfortable for those of us who are still waiting for the opportunity to get our hands on the new console.
The PS4 will do for now, but Sony will make sure it changes that rhetoric sooner rather than later.
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