If you are the owner of a DualSense controller, surely you have thought about what other uses you can give it when you are not using it on your PlayStation 5. Likewise, if you have an old PS4 DualShock 4, you may want to try it on your new console.
Are PS4 and PS5 controllers backward compatible? What are the limits to interconnect them?
How to use DualSense on PS4
If we stick to the official, technically the DualSense, the PlayStation 5 controller is not compatible with PS4.
Neither connecting it via USB, nor trying to synchronize it via Bluetooth. However, there are unofficial methods that do allow you to do so.
Surely, being a generational leap in terms of new features that the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 did not have, Sony did not want to get involved with possible mistakes when buying “PS4-compatible” controllers but then did not give users of this console all the functions that the controller does have on PS5.
Whatever the official reason for this, we are going to tell you a couple of methods to be able to use the DualSense with PlayStation 4 games. The first and most obvious is to play backward compatible titles. PS5 runs almost all PS4 titles and you won’t have to buy a last generation controller for it. Of course, new features like trigger resistance or haptic feedback will be disabled, but all standard controls will work without any major issues.
Secondly, if what we mean is playing with the DualSense on PlayStation 4, things change and get complicated. With Remote Play or Remote Use you can control your PlayStation console remotely, as long as you have access to a high-speed Internet connection and from another device. Again, we could control a PS4 and play on it… from a PS5.
You will need to complete the following steps each time you connect to your PS4 console from your PS5 console.
- Turn on your PS4 console or put it in rest mode.
- From the Games menu on the PS5 system acting as a client, select Remote Play. If you select Settings, you can configure the video quality settings for Remote Play, such as resolution and frame rate.
- Select PS4. If you are required to enter your login ID and password, sign in with the account you use on your PS4 console. After connecting, your PS4 console screen will appear on your PS5 console and you can start using Remote Play with your DualSense.
The best alternative in this case is to buy a controller adapter. These devices allow you to cheat a system and use unlicensed drivers. For example, Sony did not include support for generic controllers on the PlayStation 4, so it only accepts licensed ones (and no, DualSense is not considered as such).
Can a DualShock 4 be used on PS5?
If you own a PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller, you’ll be happy to know that you can use it to play on its successor PS5. Obviously, since PlayStation 5 games have certain controller features activated, the compatibility will not be there and you will not be able to use them that way.
You will only be able to play titles suitable for Sony’s old-gen console on PS5 with the PS4 controller. That is, only PS4 games that are backward compatible with the next generation console. You won’t even be able to play PS4 titles that have a free upgrade to the PS5 version with a DualShock 4… because they will essentially become copies of the software on PlayStation 5.
There is no trick here. If you want to play PlayStation 5 games on your PS5, you need its corresponding controller to take full advantage of everything the developers have added for a more immersive experience.
