Ever since it was released close to four years ago, the PlayStation 5 has been a highly successful console. It has not only outsold the rival Xbox Series X by a big margin, but it has already become home to a slew of critically acclaimed games such as Returnal, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarok, and more. However, if there is one thing that the console has lacked compared to the Xbox Series X/S, it is backwards compatibility.
The PlayStation 5 still doesn’t support PS3 games, while the Xbox supports Xbox 360 titles and more. This is a major concern for game preservation and a big worry for those with aging PS3 consoles but a huge library of games to play on the system.
Fortunately, there’s good news: rumours are again hinting that the PS5 could gain backwards compatibility for PS3 games in the future. This development comes courtesy of gaming journalist Shpeshal Nick, who mentioned the same during the XboxEra podcast.
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PS3 Backwards Compatibility for PS5 Might Be in the Works at Sony
It must be noted that the Sony PS5 already supports PS4 backwards compatibility natively. This means users can enjoy thousands of PS4 titles on their PS5 consoles. This move helped Sony already have a sizeable gaming library available for the PS5 system when it launched in 2020.
That said, Shpeshal Nick mentioned during the XboxEra podcast that he has heard that Sony could be working on “select PS3 backwards compatibility.” However, it isn’t clear at the moment how this could be introduced.
For those uninitiated, Xbox already allows users to insert discs of old games and then download a copy of the game. Sony could take a similar approach. But until then, the only way to play PS3 games (albeit limited) is by downloading classic titles that are part of the PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe Classics Games catalog.
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More People Have Said the Same
Apart from Nick, senior gaming journalist Jeff Grubb has also relayed similar information. Speaking during the Game Mess Mornings podcast, he said that Sony may have been working on PS3 backwards compatibility for the PS5 for “quite some time.” He further mentioned that he heard about the same earlier this year and had expected Sony to reveal it then, but that, of course, did not happen earlier this year. Having said that, this information should be taken with a grain of salt, as plans can always change, and these are just rumours at this point of time.
