Horizon Forbidden West and Sackboy: A Big Adventure Will Also Come to PS4

Neither of them got a spotlight at today's PlayStation 5 showcase, but there's some big news today for both Horizon Forbidden West and for Sackboy: A Big Adventure, the Little Big Planet spin-off. Sony has revealed that both PS5 titles will actually be coming to its older console as well.

In a post at the PlayStation Blog, CEO Jim Ryan explains the decision to release both of those titles—as well as Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales—for the PlayStation 4. "We know that the PS4 community will transition to PS5 at different times," Ryan writes, "and we're happy to announce PS4 versions of some of our exclusives." Details on how the versions of the games will differ and on how upgrading from current-gen to next-gen versions will work are as follows:

Given Sony's next-gen messaging over the past few months, revealing that three of its first-party PS5 titles are actually heading to PS4 comes as something of an about-face. Sony, a company that says it "believes in generations" to explain why DualShock 4 controllers won't work with PS5, now looks to be taking a similar approach to Microsoft when it comes to cross-gen first-party development.

Granted, this arrangement may just be limited to these three PlayStation Studios titles. At the end of today's presentation, Sony also teased a new God of War title, but did not specify which platform or platforms it's heading to. With a 2021 launch window outlined, that could still mean it'll be a cross-gen release too. After all, Horizon Forbidden West (said to be a great showcase of the PS5's fast loading capabilities) is also aiming for a 2021 launch.

This news, along with the PS5 pricing, will surely move the needle for some folks on the decision to either buy or skip Sony's new platform at launch. With the disc drive-equipped version priced at $499.99 and the digital-only PS5 at $399.99, Sony is pricing its machines competitively against the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, but the two companies now also look similar in terms of their claims to next-gen exclusives.