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Sony ‘could be working’ to bring proper PS3 game emulation to PS5

8BiTw0LF

Banned
Sony Interactive Entertainment could be working to bring PlayStation 3 games to PlayStation 5 without the requirement to stream them over the internet.

That’s according to Venturebeat journalist Jeff Grubb, whose sources have reportedly indicated that behind the scenes Sony could be working on an emulation solution for PS3 games on PS5.

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.
“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,” he said. “It may take some time.
“I wish they would come out and tell us that. 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”.

While this hasn’t been stated publicly, the consensus is that due to the unique architecture of the PS3 and its infamous Cell processor, emulating the system within the PS5 in software (in the same way that the Xbox Series X emulates an Xbox 360) would be incredibly difficult.

However, fans aren’t convinced. YouTuber and developer at Night Dive Studios ModernVintageGamer tweeted in the wake of this week’s announcement that emulating the PS3 on the PS5 was “absolutely possible” but that “Sony has never been interested in investing the millions to make it happen”.




Currently, many classic PlayStation games are currently only playable natively on the PlayStation 3, including Metal Gear Solid 4, and entries in the InFamous, Resistance, Ratchet & Clank and Killzone series.

VGC’s Jordan Middler wrote in a column this week that he was disappointed by how Sony seemingly continues to overlook the classic console.
“It’s truly a shame to see how PlayStation continues to treat its third generation. Much of what’s so good about the platform now, namely its focus on big, shiny first-party experiences was birthed from the PS3.

“The excuses about how technically challenging it might be to get PS3 games running natively on the PS5 hold less and less water as more emulators emerge in the PC scene, running on hardware far below that of a PlayStation 5.”

From VGC
 

yurinka

Member
Fake news, according to an Insomniac and Sony ICE PS3 engine programmer and a coder of the best PS3 emulator for PC it's impossible to properly emulate PS3 on PS5 at full speed, at least for some games that took full advantage of its hardware.

The remaining important games not playable locally on PS4 could get remasters, remakes or ported collections for PS4 & PS5 as many other ones did.
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I kinda thought this would be the case
 
I have a feeling we will get some emulated “classics” in a while. 4k/60. There will be a small section on the store. Espescially MGS4 IF (when) Sony buys Konami.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
You can get respectable results on an old Vishera + Polaris. Even if they couldn't add some bonuses on top like with 360, I think they could match original performance with the current hardware, at least on most things (are still quite a few broken games on RPCS3).
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Well all they need to do is to make some deal with RPCS3 guys, since they are still able to sell those titles, it wouldn't probably require much more than that. MS is in worse spot, because basically they have to repack the games, so they would run on Series X|S. So that means you have to get additional licensing approval
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
"could be"

let me know when they do. they should've done it 9 years ago when PS4 came out.

I'd pay $70 for a great PS3 emulation app. Should be free but if Sony needs the money to support its development I'd pay to gain access to all my old games.
yeah poor sony needs money for development. it's not like they created the PS3 or know how it works! /s. we shouldn't have to pay them to support PS3 games.
 
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SilentUser

Member
This rumour is not new at all, the very first time Project Spartacus was mentioned already brought to the table that Sony was working on an emulator exclusively for the PS5.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Well all they need to do is to make some deal with RPCS3 guys, since they are still able to sell those titles, it wouldn't probably require much more than that. MS is in worse spot, because basically they have to repack the games, so they would run on Series X|S. So that means you have to get additional licensing approval

I hope Xbox also experiments with general X360/OG Xbox emulation at some point. They should have the clocks now to emulate the CPUs. It could be a seperate app and offered as a "your results may vary" kind of thing. With the 360 games they still sell being offered with the proven method they've always been using.
 

stranno

Member
Fake news, according to an Insomniac and Sony ICE PS3 engine programmer and a coder of the best PS3 emulator for PC it's impossible to properly emulate PS3 on PS5 at full speed, at least for some games that took full advantage of its hardware.

The remaining important games not playable locally on PS4 could get remasters, remakes or ported collections for PS4 & PS5 as many other ones did.
PS4 Linux already runs RPCS3 fairly well in some titles, and PS4 IPC is crap compared to PS5 IPC. PS3 emulation should be perfectly doable on PS5.

 
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ActusReusJB

Neo Member
The cynical part of me says Sony doesn’t do it because they don’t want to have the conversation about why the PS3 games you already purchased aren’t just playable. By making it streaming only they can effectively limit the titles and put it behind a paywall. I mean even Xbox has been transparent that they had to go get permission from publishers because many of the older gen agreements weren’t constructed to account for backwards compatibility. I think Sony just doesn’t want to open that box, the flack they are catching now is a fraction of what it would be if you knew your PS5 could play a game you bought 12 years ago from Sony, but they weren’t letting you play it without a subscription or a repurchase.
 

TLZ

Banned
The more I think about, PS3 is the worst console Sony has put out. It's just crappy hardware all around, with few developers capable of harnessing its full potential. Crazy Ken fucked up big time with PS3.
PS2 wasn't easy to develop for as well, but Devs jumped on it because it sold great, so they had to deal with it.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
PS2 is a crappy console too. The only good consoles Sony has put out is the original PSX and PS5.

cmpunk-what.gif
 
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Belthazar

Member
I feel like the solution they'll find is just making ports of the few games left behind gradually instead of a full emulation solution, it's probably easier and cheaper this way. Those ports will also serve as new drops for the service, which is enticing for people to keep their subscriptions.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
The open source community has put a ton of work into this. Sony should cough up a few million and buy some tech from them. If they're going to pay 4 billion for Bungie then why not?
 

dotnotbot

Member
This isn't news and basically another educated guess by Grubb. Currently, Sony relies on original PS3 hardware for their streaming service so of course they are working on emulator.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Proper PS3 emulation on PS5 is a pretty tricky thing for Sony, and not just for creating a functional emulator.

For a start off, there's a basic choice in how the emulation is accessed. Is it packaged in per-title like the PS2 and PSP stuff, or is it a plain system-level feature where inserting a PS3 BD-ROM would attempt to play the software? Big difference in terms of the business practicality and what that means for licensing - even if I suspect most end-users would EXPECT both to be available. And react badly if they weren't because of the optics.

Then if PS3 titles were elevated to the same level as PS4 BC titles, they'd likely need to switch up the whole trophy back-end.

And of course if its a full spectrum approach where PS5 consoles are aware of the primary accounts past PS3 licenses, its a whole bunch of other questions and again issues over how it looks to the userbase.

It all gets pretty convoluted pretty fast. The basic tech is just the tip of the iceberg, which is why I don't see the "dream" version of PS3 emulation where its integrated on-par with PS4 BC ever happening. Its a ton of expense without too much of an obvious upside in terms of ROI.
 

kingfey

Banned
Big difference in terms of the business practicality and what that means for licensing - even if I suspect most end-users would EXPECT both to be available. And react badly if they weren't because of the optics.
This is the only big hurdle step for emulator on consoles.
MS stopped their BC program, because of licensing issues.
Sony has way bigger library than x360. It will be a bug headache for Sony.
 

MScarpa

Member
I'd pay $70 for a great PS3 emulation app. Should be free but if Sony needs the money to support its development I'd pay to gain access to all my old games.
You should should just donate money to Sony. 😂 "If they need the money" hahah WTF man.
 
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