PS5 Remote Play app keeps PS4 useful in next generation

With the PlayStation 5 launching later this week, there might be some folks out there who are planning to pick up one of those and get rid of their PS4 in the process. It makes sense to do something like that – after all, most PlayStation 4 games will be playable on PlayStation 5, and selling your PS4 means that you'd have some extra cash to put toward new hardware. If you were thinking of doing that, you might want to hit the brakes for the moment, because today Sony added a Remote Play app to the PlayStation 4 that will make the console relevant in the next generation.

That Remote Play app allows you to stream PlayStation 5 games to your PlayStation 4, so if you live in a household with multiple TVs, you'll be able to use that PS4 as something of a streaming box. The app first started appearing on PlayStation 4 consoles today, but of course, since no one has a PlayStation 5 yet, the social media masses (particularly those on Reddit) were unable to do a whole more than share screenshots of the app installed on their PlayStation 4 consoles.

Eurogamer, however, detailed the app a bit further, saying that on the PS5 you want to stream from, you'll have to enable Remote Play first by going into Settings > System > Remote Play > Enable Remote Play. Simple enough, and users even have a number of resolution options when it comes to PS5 Remote Play: 540p, 720p, and 1080p.

As Eurogamer notes, this potentially opens the door to playing PS5 games with a DualShock 4, something that Sony has already said is not possible when you're actually playing games on a PlayStation 5. Though the DualShock 4 can connect to the PlayStation 5 for the purposes of controlling PS4 games, it won't work in any PlayStation 5 games, which leaves us wondering just how Sony handles the DualShock 4 in PS5 Remote Play.

These answers will probably become clearer as more people get to use the app, but for now, at least we know that the PlayStation 4 will still have plenty of usefulness into the next generation. The PlayStation 5 launches here in the US on Thursday, November 12th.