PS3 Emulation Reportedly in Development for PlayStation 5

The FPS Review may receive a commission if you purchase something after clicking a link in this article.

Image: Sony

Why on earth would Sony spend its time developing backward compatibility for PS3 titles on PS5 when it can just nickel and dime players through a subscription service, as demonstrated by the new Premium tier of its revamped PlayStation Plus program, which includes the perk of being able to stream PS3 games?

Who knows, but the ability to play PS3 titles on Sony’s latest console is indeed coming, according to VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb, who showed up in a new episode for his Game Mess channel on YouTube yesterday and suggested that PS5 owners would eventually be able to load up classic PS3 games on their machine.

“Since talking about this all week, I’ve looked, I’ve asked… it sounds like Sony might be working on emulation for PS3 on PS5,” Grubb said. “It may take some time.

“I wish they would come out and tell us that,” he added. “Tell us that you care about this stuff because that is what was missing from the PS Plus announcement… to me, it seemed like they didn’t care about any of it. They just slapped it together, put a new name on it and sold it.”

Sony unveiled its answer to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service this week, a revamped version of PlayStation Plus that comprises three tiers. PS Plus Premium, the flagship option, costs $17.99 per month and counts a catalog of over 700 games across multiple PlayStation generations as one of its benefits.

Sony ‘could be working’ to bring proper PS3 game emulation to PS5, it’s claimed (VGC)

Earlier this week Sony announced that it would be bringing classic games to its latest console via its new PS Plus Premium subscription.

When it launches in June for $17.99/£13.49 a month, subscribers will gain benefits including access to 340 games from the original PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PSP generations.

However, while the majority of those games will be available to download and play on PS5 via emulation, Sony confirmed that PS3 games would only be playable via cloud streaming.

According to Venturebeat’s Grubb, however, the service could eventually receive PS3 emulation similar to the other retro systems it’s set to support.

Join the discussion in our forums...

Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

Recent News