PS3 Games Could Be Coming To PlayStation Plus Premium, No Streaming Required

If you’ve tried to access the PlayStation 3 library on PlayStation Plus Premium, you’ve probably been met with the disappointment of seeing that every game is only available to stream.

While PS1, PS2, and PS4 games are available to download and play on PS5 via backwards compatibility, PS3 titles are unfortunately only limited to streaming at the moment.

This could all be set to change though, as Implicit Conversions CEO Bill Litshauer has stated that the studio is working on a PS3 emulator.

You may know Implicit Conversions as the developer responsible for bringing back several PS1 and PS2 games to PlayStation Plus Premium.

It’s meant that several of these long forgotten classics have made their way to modern platforms, and are easily accessible via PS Plus subscriptions.

PS3 emulation could be coming

In an interview with YouTuber Mystic, Litshauer said he believes PS3 emulation could be “technically possible” in the future, and that the company is working on achieving this.

“We believe it’s feasible,” Litshauer stated. “I don’t think anyone expects it to run on a Switch or a PS4, but maybe PS5 and certainly PS6 whenever that comes out. We do feel it’s technically possible, it’s just a matter of devoting the time, energy, and resources to it.”

Litshauer added: “We’re working with a third-party to help us with this. So, we have a base to work off. It’s a back burner project for us that we’re investigating over time. To be transparent, PS2 is more of a priority for us just because of the demand. But it’s a fun project for our engineers.”

PS3 games have been notoriously difficult to port to new platforms, hence why there are a lot of games that are still stuck in PS3 jail.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

In layman’s terms, the PS3 used a special type of processor that was more complicated to work with than those on PCs, the Xbox 360, or Nintendo Wii.

The PS3 hardware was very powerful for its time, which is how Sony got games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and God of War 3 running on it, but it did make it quite complicated for multi-platform developers.

It’s also meant that porting PS3 games to different platforms has been rather complex, too. It’s possible, which is how we got PS4 remasters of games like Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Heavy Rain. And that’s also the reason why PS3 games are limited to streaming only on PlayStation Plus Premium.

Still, with PS3 emulator projects such as RPCS3 making massive strides on PC recently, it’s certainly possible that Implicit Conversions could achieve this at some point in the future.