Summary
A newPlayStationrumor could mean great things for fans of the PlayStation 3 era of gaming. On PlayStation, backwards compatibility isn’t as straightforward as its main console rival, Xbox, as while Xbox lets players insert their old discs or boot up digital copies for select games from past console generations that players may have already purchased, Sony’s approach is locked behind the PlayStation Plus subscription, as PS+ Extra covers PS4 and PS5, while PS+ Premium includes downloadable or streamable versions of select games from thePlayStation, PS2, and PSP generations, as well as streamable PS3 titles.
This could be changing soon, however, as Nick “Shpeshal Nick” Baker has claimed on the latestXboxErapodcast via an anonymous source that Sony is working on “select PS3 backwards compatibility.” Baker asked his source for more detail about what this meant, addressing the rumor’s vagueness and whether this will be as part of PlayStation Plus like the PS, PS2, and PSP “Classics” that would allow players to download them now instead of relying on streaming, and got a response that Sony would “sell them,” whichsuggests a similar approach to Microsoft that would allow the chosen PS3 titles to be played natively on the PlayStation 5.
Unfortunately, Baker pointed out that he received “no more details” regarding FPS boosts or other features often seen through emulation on modern hardware.
Backwards Compatibility Would’ve Been Better Than PS Premium
Although Sony is aiming high with PS Plus Premium, implementing further backwards compatibility would have been a big asset to the PlayStation 5.
The PS3’s System Architecture Is Often Used As A Reason Its Games Aren’t As Backwards Compatible
Developers Were Critical Of This At The Time
One reasonPS3 titles weren’t playable on the PS4 or the PS5 natively was due to the console’s infamous system architecture. In the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, several developers had been vocal about the PS3 system, with Valve President Gabe Newell stating that it was a “waste of everybody’s time” in an interview with Game Informer magazine (viaGamesRadar+) initially before partnering with Sony to releasePortal 2on the platform. Therefore, in order to advertise PS+ Premium as having titles from every system, Sony made PS3 emulation streamable, but this was controversial due to needing a high-speed, stable internet connection and the fact it had a cut-off limit to free up the servers, which would make some PS3 exclusive titles such as the cutscene-heavyMetal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots- which was on the new PS+ tiers' streaming predecessor, PS Now - unplayable.
It will be interesting to see just how Sony manages to achieve this rumored native backwards compatibility considering how the company has seemingly avoided such a task for two console generations so far.Sony used to be on-board with native backwards compatibility in the earlier PlayStation generations, with the original PS library being playable by simply inserting those disks into the PS2, and the original, first edition PS3s could play PS2 and PlayStation titles through a similar process, while Sony dropped this for PS2 titles later on. If Sony couldsuccessfully implement backwards compatibilityfrom the PS3, which is its most notoriously challenging hardware, it could bode well for the other, earlier generations as well.
The PS+ Classics collection is a nice way to emulate select titles and introduces features modern gaming audiences would expect, such as upgraded graphics, quick save feature, and trophies, along with the ability to rewind and custom video filters. However, it does still offer a limited number of titles, and as Nick Baker pointed out, there’s a number of people who don’t want to keep the old hardware, but do want to justplay their full librarieson thePlayStation 5, meaning there’s certainly a market for native backwards compatibility should Sony opt to invest more heavily into it.
