Your PS4 can Remote Play games from the PS5

You may have to be content with older games, though.

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

Your PS4 will still be useful when the PlayStation 5 arrives — if just as a way to play games on your new console. Eurogamer reports that Sony is automatically rolling out a PS5 Remote Play app to PS4 owners. You’ll have to enable Remote Play in the PS5’s settings to use it, but it’s otherwise an easy way to fire up the new system on a distant TV instead of resorting to your phone or a PC. That is, provided the games you want to run are viable through PS4 Remote Play.

Sony was quick to warn that the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller won’t work with PS5-native games, and early adopters have indicated the PS5’s DualSense doesn’t work natively with the PS4. In other words, you might only be using the PS5 Remote Play app to stream PS4 games you don’t already have on the machine you’re using. You might get away with it for games that rely on specialized peripherals like steering wheels and arcade sticks (which will work with PS5 games), but this app won’t be quite as convenient as you might like.

Not that you’d want to use the DualShock 4 with some PS5 games as it is. At least a few titles will depend on the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and subtler haptic feedback, and you won’t replicate those with previous-gen gamepads. If you want to use the likes of Astro’s Playroom or similarly PS5-only titles, you’ll likely have to sit at your own system until PS5-to-PS5 Remote Play is a realistic option.