Remember PT? The free “playable trailer” was released for the PS4 back in 2014 to promote a Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro-led Silent Hill sequel featuring Norman Reedus. But when that project was cancelled in 2015, the demo was removed from the PlayStation Store, even as a redownload.
That means the short horror demo is now only playable on some of the 1 million or so PS4 systems that downloaded it before the discontinuation. Those units have sold for heavily inflated prices on eBay as the hard-to-access demo has achieved cult classic status among horror game fans.
In the lead-up to the PS5’s launch this week, there was some speculation that those trapped demos could be freed from their PS4 prisons via transfer to a backward-compatible PS5. Now, though, multiple outlets have confirmed that the game can’t be moved from a PS4 to a PS5; When you try through the system’s App Transfer menu, you simply get a message saying, “You can’t use this PS4 game or app on the PS5.”
What makes this story even stranger is the fact that PT apparently was transferable to and fully playable on the PS5 earlier in the prerelease period. Polygon reports that the game transferred and played just fine on the PS5 as of October 24, and GamesRadar reported the same as of October 27. In the days since, though, that situation changed to block both transfer and play on the PS5. Even copies previously transferred are reportedly listed as “Playable on PS4” when viewed on the PS5’s Library menu.
In a sense, this isn’t a surprise. For years now, Konami has worked to cut off access to PT, and the company had already confirmed that the game wouldn’t be downloadable on the PS5. Still, the fact that PT was briefly playable on prerelease PS5 units shows that Konami and Sony had to make an affirmative decision to limit the game’s availability on the newer system.
It seems that PT will join only a small handful of other PS4 games that are not playable on PS5. And PlayStation games that predate the PS4 aren’t playable on the PS5 except as available through PlayStation Now streaming.
For now, if you missed out on your chance to download PT years ago, your best bet might be recreations designed for the PC or in the PS4 game-making tool Dreams.
