According to VentureBeat’s Grubb broke the news, Sony may launch a PS3 emulator in the PS5 to support PS3 games, rather than play in cloud games.
I’ve been looking, I’ve been asking since discussing this for a week… It sounds like Sony might be working on simulating PS3 games on PS5. It might take some time, he said.
Earlier this week, Sony announced a new PS Plus premium subscription service, bringing classic games to its latest PS5 console. The service will launch in June for $17.99 a month, and subscribers will be able to play 340 games from the PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PSP eras.
However, while most of these games will be downloadable and playable on PS5 via simulation, Sony confirmed that PS3 games will only be played via cloud gaming.
Many believed that because of the PS3’s unique architecture and its infamous Cell processor, emulating the system in the PS5’s software would be extremely difficult. ModernVintageGamer, a YouTuber and developer of Night Dive Studios, tweeted after this week’s Sony announcement that emulating the PS3 on the PS5 is absolutely possible, but that Sony has never been interested in investing millions to make it happen.
At present, many classic PlayStation games can only be played natively on PlayStation 3, including Metal Gear 4 and Killing Zone and other works.