Buzz! never came to PS4 or PS5: what happened to the quiz game and what comes closest in 2026
Four buzzers on one cable, a big red button and a host who laughed at you for buzzing too early: Buzz! was the reason a PlayStation 2 lived in the living room instead of a bedroom. Thirteen games, more than ten million copies, and then nothing. No PS4 version, no PS5 version, and the studio behind it is gone. This is what happened, what you can still play in 2026, and which games get closest to the buzzer feeling. Warm up first?
By Thomas van der Pas · Updated 21 September 2026 · 7 min read
In short
The short answer
- Buzz! on PS4 or PS5? Does not exist. The last game came out in October 2010 for the PS3.
- Online? The PS3 servers, and with them MyBuzz! and the downloadable quizzes, went offline on 2 August 2013.
- The makers?Relentless Software closed in 2016. Some of them went on to make It's Quiz Time.
- Still playable? Yes, offline on a PS2, PS3 or PSP with the buzzers, all second-hand.
Play a round first
This is what it felt like on the buzzer: a question, four colours, first to press. Five questions about Buzz! itself, then on with the story.
What Buzz! was
Buzz! started in 2005 with The Music Quiz on the PlayStation 2, developed by the British studio Relentless Software and published by Sony. The idea: a TV quiz show in your living room, complete with a studio set, an audience and a host, Buzz, voiced in the English versions by Jason Donovan. You did not play with a controller but with the buzzers: a red button to buzz in and four coloured buttons for the answers, four buzzers on one cable. Quiz TV (2008) brought wireless buzzers and let eight people play at once.
Between 2005 and 2010 thirteen main titles appeared, from The Big Quiz and The Sports Quiz to Quiz World and The Ultimate Music Quiz, plus five Buzz! Junior games for kids. The PS3 games also had MyBuzz!: a website where you built your own quizzes and downloaded other people's. All told, more than ten million copies were sold. If one series made "quizzing on the PlayStation" a thing, it is this one.
How it ended
- October 2010: The Ultimate Music Quiz comes out on the PS3. It turns out to be the last Buzz!.
- February 2011: Relentless lays off staff and shifts to smaller, digital games.
- 2 August 2013: Sony switches off the online features of Quiz TV, Quiz World, Brain of the World and The Ultimate Music Quiz. MyBuzz! and the quiz downloads go with them.
- 2016: Relentless Software closes for good.
- 2017: Sony tries once more with Knowledge is Power, a quiz show where phones replace the buzzers. That game has since been pulled from the store too; how that went is in Knowledge is Power quietly died.
Sources: the Wikipedia pages on the Buzz! series and Relentless Software, and the server shutdown notice on PlayStationTrophies.
Can you still play Buzz! in 2026?
Yes, and that is the good news in this story: Buzz! had no companion app that could be pulled from a store. What you need is a PlayStation 2, 3 or PSP, a Buzz! game on disc and a set of buzzers, and all of that can be found second-hand. Everything that was offline still works exactly as it did in 2008. Three things to know:
- No PS4 or PS5. The games were never ported, and we could not find a PS4 or PS5 game that uses the buzzers.
- Online is gone. No MyBuzz!, no custom quizzes, no new questions. What is on the disc is what you get, and those questions are fifteen years old by now.
- Buzzers are the bottleneck. Four wired buzzers per set; for more players you need the wireless sets, and those are scarcer.
What comes closest in 2026
Nobody reinvented the buzzers, but the phone replaced them. These are the games that get closest to the Buzz! feeling, compared honestly:
- It's Quiz Time (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, 2017): made by Snap Finger Click, a studio of former Relentless people from the Buzz! team. Up to eight players with their phone as buzzer, an AI host, tens of thousands of questions. The closest thing to the original, with one caveat: it runs through an app on your phone, and exactly such an app is what eventually killed Knowledge is Power.
- Trivial Pursuit Live! 2 (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch): the board game as a TV quiz, with controllers instead of buzzers.
- Trivia Murder Party 2, part of The Jackbox Party Pack 6: a quiz with a horror twist, players through the browser on their phones. Jackbox is bought per pack.
- Kwishetwel, without a console: a quiz show in the browser on your TV, laptop or projector. Everyone scans a QR code and plays on their own phone, with a ticking timer. No app, no account for players, no four-buzzer limit. Whoever gets it wrong spins the penalty wheel. Building your own questions, like MyBuzz! back in the day, is part of the Ultimate plan.
In all fairness: the host who mocks you, the studio set and the feel of a real red button under your thumb, none of these bring that back. If that is what you came for, rescue a PS3 and a set of buzzers from eBay. If it is the quiz night you miss, you are back in business in a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Can you play Buzz! on a PS5 or PS4?
No. Sony never released a Buzz! for the PlayStation 4 or 5, and the PS2 and PS3 games do not run on those consoles. Buzz! is only playable on a PlayStation 2, 3 or PSP with the matching buzzers.
Is a new Buzz! coming?
Nothing has been announced. The last game, The Ultimate Music Quiz, came out in October 2010, developer Relentless Software closed in 2016, and Sony's later attempt at a quiz show with phones, Knowledge is Power from 2017, has since been pulled from the store as well.
Do the Buzz! buzzers still work?
On a PlayStation 2 or 3 with a Buzz! game they do, including the wireless set that came with Quiz TV and later. We could not find a PS4 or PS5 game that uses the buzzers.
Can you still make your own Buzz! quizzes, like with MyBuzz!?
No. MyBuzz! and the other online features of the PS3 games were switched off on 2 August 2013. Your own questions on the TV with phones as buzzers is possible in the browser these days; on Kwishetwel that is part of the Ultimate plan.
What is the closest thing to Buzz!?
On the console: It's Quiz Time, made by former Buzz! developers, with phones as buzzers and up to eight players. Without a console: Kwishetwel, a quiz show in the browser on any screen, where everyone plays on their own phone via a QR code.
Which Buzz! games were there?
Thirteen main titles between 2005 and 2010, among them The Music Quiz, The Big Quiz, The Sports Quiz, The Mega Quiz, The Hollywood Quiz, Quiz TV, Quiz World and The Ultimate Music Quiz, plus five Buzz! Junior games. More than ten million copies sold in total.
Further reading: the Knowledge is Power alternative, every PlayLink game and what still works, Jackbox alternatives, 50 music quiz questions with answers and Kwishetwel as a Kahoot alternative.