Not if you have PS+ cloud saves, it’s pretty easy to do manual downloads of saves. It is not, alas, as easy as Xbox’s automatic cloud saving.
You also have the option of transferring your PS4’s installed software over your home network, it’s not blazingly fast but worked well for me. Also, the system software clearly segregates PS5 and PS4 data, so no worries there.
Many PS5 games require you to manually transfer them though, as forgeforsaken says, though, right? You can’t just download from PS+, you have to actively export to the game’s own servers from PS4 first.
I suppose I could install the PS4 version on the PS5, download the save, then export it, then uninstall and install the PS5 version. But that seems like a pain. So it’s probably easier to hold off on selling the PS4.
That might be the case for some games, but I did not run across that. If you have your “home” PS4 set to auto-upload your saves, I would think that should take care of most of them. But then, I do the majority of my gaming on Xbox, so cross-platform games like Destiny 2 may work differently.
To be honest, it’s not really a huge issue for me unless it also affects back compat, as I’m not planning on rebuying anything. It’s only if there’s a free upgrade to the next gen version for a handful of games I haven’t finished like, say, Ghost of Tsushima, or The Last Guardian.
There’s a bunch you have to export, most of the earlier releases: Nioh 2, Final Fantasy, Tony Hawk, Avengers, and some others. Ghost of Tsushima you can just import without exporting supposedly, Jedi Fallen Order was a rare automatic case where you didn’t have to do anything.
If you have a PS4 and you want to play your PS4 games on your new PS5, that’s pretty painless. Using either cloud saves or the system transfer, you just move everything over. Running the PS4 versions of your games on the new hardware, all your progress should be there.
As far as I understand it, PS5 versions of games are seen as completely different games than their PS4 counterparts by the system (I think this is where the Xbox handles it fundamentally differently but I don’t know for sure), and a PS5 game won’t see PS4 saves at all. My PS5 copy of Spider-Man could no more access my PS4 Spider-Man save game than it could access my PS5 Control save file. Games don’t see other games local saves (or saves in Sony’s PS+ cloud save storage) period.
But there are games that allow your progress from PS4 to carry forward on the PS5 through one of two workarounds: either by always saving your progress to their own servers, or by including in (or patching into) the PS4 version a one-time export of the save file to their servers where it can be imported by the PS5.
Games like Fortnite and Destiny fall into the first category, where your progress always lived in the server, and so these are the games that maintain your progress “automatically”. These tend to be more multiplayer focused games.
Games like Spider-Man fall into the second category, where the feature to export a save game was expressly added for this generational jump.
Doom Eternal is a weird example of these different approaches, because some element of your multiplayer progress did cross over because it was always saved on the server side, but no export was offered for the single-player save progress.
I would not count on many more games with PS4 to PS5 transfers in the second category; this feature seems to be quickly disappearing, not becoming more popular.
Googling didn’t turn up a definitive or recent list of games that let you move your progress from PS4 to PS5, the best I could find is a partial list from December.
The bottom line is you shouldn’t assume this functionality. Look into it for specific games you care about.
I didn’t have to do anything other than transfer the PS4 to the PS5. That’s it. Everything was there. I had my PS4 games on the external hard drive and just plugged that in and played video games.
Wreckfest has this as well. It should be the expected functionality going forward now that the capability has been added to the PS5’s SDK.
As noted above, this is no longer true.
Neat, I stand corrected! Didn’t realize that functionality was possible since none of the early wave of games did that.
I still wouldn’t assume it will be there for all games, much as I wish more games would include it. As you pointed out, it’s apparently possible for PS5 games to see local PS4 saves this way, but if I understand it correctly the PS5 version does still require the dev to provide the way for the PS5 to import and convert the old save. Sounds like it’s still not transparent to the game, it’s just easier than I realize for it to access the old file to import it.
Okay, won the random number generator on Sony’s direct order today and have a disc-less but still enormous PS5 coming.
Glancing up, it sounds like, if I have PS+, I can just copy my PS4 games to an external HDD to transfer them?
Guessing the resale on PS4 Pros is low enough that I should just keep that one for my second TV?
You should probably check Ebay on the Pro. It’s worth at least the price of a Series S.
Huh. Guess I’ll do that. Plus I have a few disc games I can toss in since I bought the digital PS5.
I think Horizon: Zero Dawn is the only PS4 game I stopped mid-game in, so that’s the only save I’ll worry about transferring.
My biggest concern is figuring out how to upgrade my Marvel’s Spider-Man to the PS5 version. I assume it’s enhanced enough to justify the $20? I have the PS4/PS5 edition of Miles Morales, so I’m guessing I’ll see the upgrade option in the console store.
The upgrade for Spiderman is actually in the main menu of Miles Morales. You won’t find it in the store. if you haven’t played the game yet I’d probably pay for the upgrade.
Yeah, swapping over an external drive is the fastest method.
Thanks, Brad. Yeah, my son finished it on the PS4, but I figured I’d be getting a PS5 eventually so I waited. :)
I finished the original but not the DLC. Bought the package w/ MM and the PS5 version, tried out the enhanced original game to see what the revved-up PS5 version looked like, and got sucked in for around 15 hours. My take: it’s quite nice, but it didn’t blow me away with differentness and newness. Insomniac is such a good dev that the PS4 version on a Pro was pretty much the pinnacle of last-gen open world gaming.
But then, I have not been blown away with the differences between any Xbox 1X versus Series X or PS4 Pro versus PS5 game. It really is more like buying an upgraded video card than a dramatic upgrade from the last half-gen.
It’s a massive upgrade for Warzone. I played on PS4 Pro before and moved to PS5 and with 120Hz support now, Warzone is on par with mid-upper range PCs and it’s not even a PS5 specific app yet.
@Editer, the fact they’re not making Pros anymore along with the shortage of consoles everywhere is keeping the price up significantly even on OG PS4s.
Thought I posted this before, but this is a good coverage of the differences in the upgrade
Sooo - PS5, never played Spiderman or Miles Morales: what should I get and play in what order?
You can’t go wrong with either. MM is shorter and less filler, but you could always ignore some of the side quests in the original. The MM story comes after the original in a fairly direct way, but it’s not a story that’s critical to get in the right order.
Get the Ultimate Edition that includes both the original Peter game and the Miles game. Story is good in both, I think Miles plays a little better as it’s refined, also slightly better graphics. I’d say play the Peter campaign, take a break to avoid burn out, play something else then go back and play the Miles campaign.