backwards compatibility It is one of the most powerful claims of PS5. long. The PS4 catalog is as amazing as it is brutal and, to be fair, it has barely aged. We are not going to fool ourselves either, Sony’s next-generation console would have met an important Achilles heel against Xbox if it had not been implemented at launch. Which does not mean that there are still too many essential games and classics from previous systems that deserve to be rescued. Sony knows this well.
PlayStation, as a brand, has started to open up in new directions very interesting. Cross-play has been enabled, they are betting heavily on expanding their sagas to the big and small screen and it is even possible to play the successes of their studies on PC (the most recent has been God of War, no less) and Xbox with a MLB The Show 21 which, by the way, came to Game Pass at launch. Now, your way of dealing with backwards compatibility comes from way back. Long before Microsoft’s radical script twist.
The original PS2 models they were designed to be backwards compatible with games from the original PlayStation. Two points must be made here, since not all PSOne games worked equally well, nor were later models and revisions of the console compatible with the entire catalog of the first Sony console. In the case of PS3 the matter was more delicate: backwards compatibility with the first PlayStation was there, but PS2 games only worked with the launch models.
In fact, PS3 received a plethora of remastered PS2 games. Some better treated than others, everything is said. A trend that continued to rise on the very successful PS4 in which Sony definitely declined to offer backwards compatibility with its three previous desktops. Almost ten years later, PlayStation returns to the good habit of allowing us to play what we already have on PS5. But, what happens with the bombshells of previous generations? Well, as you can see, that door is open and Sony is taking more and more steps in the right direction. But let’s go by parts.
What we have now: PlayStation Now
At this point, it is worth making an obligatory point: a considerable number of classics from the first PlayStation desktops are playable on PS4, although not through a backward compatibility system but through PlayStation Now, a game service that allows both to play streaming from console and PC as download PS2 or PS3 titles from the PlayStation Store. And yes, this service is also available on PS5.
The way of approaching the relaunch of Sony classics has been mixed. A In addition to PS Now, the smaller number of remastered versions, although not for that interesting (there we have the Uncharted trilogy), has been combined with amazing remakes, which has given new life to essentials such as Shadow of The Colossus, Demon’s Souls, the Crash Bandicoot trilogy or Final Fantasy VII.
Is there an alternative to both? Definitely yes, although you have to pay for them again: selected PS2 games have been reissued and improved on PS2, including the entire Jak and Daxter saga, the mythical Ape Escape or less well-known games like Primal The Dark Cloud. Of course, in these cases indicating that, despite being classic titles, it is part of the PS4 catalog and they have accommodated themselves to its ecosystem by introducing elements such as better resolution or trophies. In fact, you can play with them through PS Now or purchasing them separately.
And what about PS3 games? Well, things are more complicated there. Great games like The Last of Us, God of War III or the aforementioned Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection they have come to be published on PS4 and, by extension, also on PS5 through backward compatibility. But if you look at the PlayStation Digital Store, the original versions of those PS3 titles aren’t listed on PS4 and PS5, so the only way to play them is through PS Now. Up to now.
What’s Happening in the PlayStation Store
For some time now, several users have begun to share and report the appearance of various PS3 games on PS5. This should not be a novelty, since it is enough to go to the search engine of the console itself, write the three letters and we will come across an interesting selection of these as part of the PlayStation Now service catalog.
However, the interesting thing about this curious discovery and the screenshots it leaves us is that games like Prince of Persia, Dead or Alive 5 (the PS3 version) or Bejeweled 3 can be purchased on PS5 without being included in the Sony service. At least, at the time of writing these words.
Prince of Persia up on the US store (Can’t buy them yet)
Also again not on PS NOW pic.twitter.com/AfLDmmHDTp
– GameRiot (@GameRiotArmy) January 16, 2022
Looks like PS3 games are popping up on the PS5 Store
From @VGC_News
Screenshot (mine) pic.twitter.com/cjlBVkkXks– GameRiot (@GameRiotArmy) January 16, 2022
Are these future additions to PS Now? In fact, one of the most curious aspects of this unexpected discovery is that, unlike the games included in the service, they are accompanied by their respective sale price in the digital store. Which, on the other hand, isn’t the case with PS3 games available on current systems like Red Dead Redemption. And the same applies to Ape Escape 2 of PS2.
While the PS2 games included in PS Now that can be purchased digitally on PS4 (and PS5) are presented with the PS4 logo and its corresponding sale price, as you can see in the case of Dark Cloud.
Which, inevitably, leaves us with two possible scenarios. An advance towards the conformation of the Spartacus project, the unification of PlayStation subscription services, or the use of the most recent backward compatibility patent of Mark Cerny.
The key element: the new Cerny patent
On January 6, 2022 Sony Interactive Entertainment completed the registration patent 17/475164 to name Mark Cerny, the architect of PlayStation consoles. The rationale for this: enable a backward compatibility system with less powerful systems without the difference in hardware spoiling the gaming experience. Or, according to words extracted from the registry:
Run the app built for the less powerful device without the detrimental effects of differences in latency or processing speed.
From here it is time to make a subsection: that a patent wants to be registered does not mean that it will be used. Although, on the other hand, it always ends up giving clues about the intentions and priorities of each company.
Especially since, if this patent was used, the entry of new games on PS4 and PS5 would be enabled, but there is a very interesting nuance if we review all its points:
The system may be an embedded system, a mobile phone, a personal computer, a tablet, a handheld game device, a workstation, a game console, and the like.
In other words, the use of classic games from previous systems would be enabled on virtually any platform. Although, logically, PlayStation today has two video game ecosystems that are currently very defined and limited: the PlayStation consoles and PlayStation Now.
In any case, it doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that PlayStation is lining up its own tiles in different directions. And if its immediate future looks great with very resounding proposals launched for two generations of the caliber God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West or Gran Turismo 7; adding the best of its most celebrated past would be a real masterpiece. If this happens, of course.
PS3 games on PS5? Never say Never
The ball is in Sony’s court. Bringing many of their most celebrated games back to current systems is a winning move. for all. Although it is understandable that for reasons of licenses the doors to the return of the complete PS3 catalog are not opened in the current systems (Xbox could not recover all the Xbox and Xbox 360 games) it will be interesting to know what plans it has to preserve its legacy and how and under what conditions it allows its players to access it.
- well, through a fully backwards compatible model in which we can even take advantage of our original discs, as is the case with Xbox.
- Or through the a system similar to that of Nintendo Switch Online, in which they are used to introduce some improvements and novelties to the classics.
In any case, the return of the great PlayStation sagas and the games that made history on Sony consoles will always be celebrated. But it’s time to reduce everything to the basics: neither Sony has addressed the matter publicly nor has it given any clues about the rumored new PlayStation subscription model. In fact, it has not even shown the design of the already officially announced PlayStation VR2.
You will have to be patient, of course. But we have one very special consolation left: looking at the release schedule from 2022 onwards, it’s more than clear that DualShock 4 and DualSense players won’t have time to get bored.
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