The PlayStation 5‘s mark on the gaming industry so far is yet to be measured, but it got off to a fairly interesting start with stock issues and some early UI woes. Now, modders are focusing their attention on the past.
According to a report from YouTuber Lowest Logan, the PS5 can run PS3 games. According to the report, for whatever reason, Sony allegedly does not allow access to that layer of backward compatibility.
Does The PlayStation 5 Support PS3 Games?
It’s A Complicated Answer
To understand this debacle, you need to go back to the launch of the PlayStation 3. It was an open secret that the hardware architecture was notoriously difficult to develop for and eventually emulate. Despite putting out a chunk of good games on the system, it’s been a spot on Sony’s legacy ever since, from a hardware perspective.
Fast-forward to the present, and folks are still having issues with the PS3. The PS5 notoriously doesn’t offer native backward compatibility with the system (instead relying on cloud architecture), but now some modders think they’ve cracked the code.
Lowest Logan posited, while setting up hardware similar to a PS5, that PS3 games can run on the PS5. They ultimately downgraded the Linux kernel using a Mesa RPM source, which led to a breakthrough in their research.
Not all games are fully compatible yet, as some of this work will have to be done by studios or Sony themselves. This is part of the reason that some modders contend that Sony isn’t making the functionality publicly available.
This Would Take Some Work
Maybe One Day
With Sony raking in money from cloud services and charging fans a monthly fee to access classics from the PS3 era, this sudden hardware shift likely isn’t happening anytime soon, from an official standpoint. That could sadly be the reality for gaming in general, as many publishers gate their material behind subscription fees and a lack of ownership.
There are myriad games right now that are completely stuck on PS3, like the original LittleBigPlanet, and various Ratchet & Clank/Resistance games. Toggling the ability to play them again natively would be a huge upgrade for Sony’s current hardware. I’m glad I still have my PS3, since all this research is fairly time and money-intensive. Game preservation has become more important than ever in the modern era of digital distribution.
In any case, adding PS3 backward compatibility would be a huge boon for the PlayStation 5, both for preservation and as a bonus value add for PS5 owners. Sadly, instead of adding new features, hardware prices are only going up, as we enter a wild era of the gaming industry.
- Brand
-
Sony
- Original Release Date
-
November 19, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
-
$399.99 (Digital Only), $499.99 (Disc Drive)
- Weight
-
Digital Edition now weighs 3.4 kg & base version weighs 3.9 kg
