The Truth About PS5 Backwards Compatibility

With the new PlayStation Plus subscription tiers detailed it looks like Sony is going to be relying on streaming PS3 games rather than run them natively through an emulator on PS5. Today we're going over why Sony is going this route.

Twitter: @SpawnWaveMedia

Like Comment and Subscribe!

Thanks for watching!

#Sony #PS5 #PS3

[sickasmalaria]

The PS5 should play PS1 through PS5. I truly believe this will be the final generation of physical media consoles. The best thing they could do is put out a console that plays ALL PlayStation games.

[FlipzMCL]

The problem is, I'd be far more willing to shell out for the higher tier subscription if they had the native emulation rather than the streaming; my internet is passable but inconsistent, and I have no interest in paying a bunch of extra money for a service that's just going to disappoint and frustrate me because I don't have access to cutting-edge high-speed internet.

Unless and until high-speed internet is universal, these game streaming services are going to continue to be a problem; they're essentially building an entire service on top of an infrastructure that simply doesn't exist yet for the majority of people, and it frustrates me that these companies can't seem to comprehend that simple fact.

[RallzGuitar]

Microsoft, probably unintentionally, made back compat easier by always having similar architecture between generations. Sony is kinda all over the place in terms of that, my guess.

[mercurrius]

Jim Ryan needs the ghost of gaming, future, present and past to visit him tonight!

[MultiSlyce]

Some of my fave games are on PS3. Shame on Sony for abandoning these games

[llfallennell]

I love how Microsoft handles backwards compatibility and lots of the games go on sales for $5 or less and it’s nice to play most of your favorite games on one console

[gundambassexe]

Sony never ceases to disappoint me with this subject

[Matrix]

Since the retro gaming market is pretty big on its own, I'd definitely consider investing in backwards compatibility if I was running Sony.

[dougphisig]

The problem with the highest tier of the new service is doing streaming for PS3 shows how little they care about trying to push that tier, and I think can give you a hint up front on how little they care about support their retro games & lack of vita games as well. I'm still really interested to see this catalogue as I just get this feeling it's going to be full of a lot of filler titles & less quality.

[Scud]

PS5 needs to play everything. It would perfectly encapsulate the entire history and would be a footnote for this console. I don’t know if we’ll see physical media continue past this generation. I was a hardcore physical media fan but the pure convenience of digital is undeniable. Sony needs to make the dive and unlock the history of PlayStation and use that in the all out war that’s going to come with Xbox and rapidly growing and really nice deal that is Game Pass.

[pastqr]

No excuses the Xbox Series S can run Ps1, Ps2, and Psp so Microsoft already plays more Playstation games than Playstation. The Steam Deck can run SOME Ps3 games via emulation so Sony's excuses are straight BS.

[Guyforkz]

Yes I'd invest in full backwards compatibility in order to strengthen Playstation as an ecosystem.
The paradigm has shifted away from just being a console into subscriptions, software and services.
If I'm going to pay a premium for a Playstation subscription I want native access to all generations of their content.

[RileysFilms]

I just want to play my old PS3, 2 and 1 games in my PS5. It would be so good to have just one console to play everything.

[theshadowdirector]

I feel like they should really consider it given how much they're charging. And I hope their existing PS2 emulation gets improved. I tried Harvest Moon a while back and it was way too dark.

[xxnikexx]

Personally I prefer remasters, collections, and remakes over cloud based gaming. Although this is something, it’s definitely not ideal.
Sony definitely could enable disc based enhanced backwards compatibility with PS1 ~ PS3 in addition to more compatible PS4 games.
Really though this is a profit driven decision. Of course they’d paywall backwards compatibility with this tier system.
It’s all money and profit driven. If we want things to change we need to voice our opinions regularly to PS about this. Don’t buy into the higher tier PS+. It’s only then PS will get the message and actually do something about it.

[slickrat]

Answering to your question at the end... "No, I wouldn't". Microsoft was in a different situation as to Sony when MS decided to invest more heavily on retro compatibility.

Microsoft had to find a way to stop losing X360 owners from migrating to the new PS4 (rather than going to the Xone), therefore they invested heavily on this.

[Followthelemming]

All they need is an external PS1, 2, 3, 4, etc DVD/BR drive that can connect to usb. Then have an application on the PS5 system to read the data and play the software.

[alexiswatson-lowe]

That rare moment when you get to watch Spawn wave in the morning instead of in the late evening. 😅

Not enthusiastic about the lack of backwards compatibility since we've been having trouble finding PS3s to play our older games. :/ I just want to play games from my childhood.

[internetjunkie]

Sony has always been stubborn about addressing the ps5 backwards compatibility issue and they have decided to create a paywall for their customers to have access to that feature which is free on Xbox .

[highwind]

Unless Sony lets us play our physical copies of PS1, 2, 3-games on PS5, they should AT LEAST follow Microsoft's example by letting us download PS1, 2, 3-games by verifying our physical discs.

SW you rock!