PlayStation Plus' Latest Free Games Have A Major Problem, Sony Admit

PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium are finally available in the UK, bringing subscribers three new tiers of unique benefits and video games to play.

Of all three tiers, PlayStation Plus Premium is clearly the most exciting by far. After years of requests, this all-new tier brings with it a select number of classic PS1, PS2, and PSP - all playable PS4 and PS5. Now that those of us in the UK can finally access PS Plus Premium, we can finally tuck in to bangers like Syphon Filter and Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue.

Unfortunately, many have noticed that the classic games don't look as good as they perhaps should on the newer hardware. It turns out there's a pretty simple reason for that.

The long and short of it is that Sony has opted to use PAL 50Hz ROMs over superior NTSC 60Hz versions for certain games. While a patch has since been released that attempts to emulate 60Hz for the 50Hz titles, the result has led to a rather ugly "ghosting" effect, as you can see documented below.

Sony has released a patch for a few PS1 Classics on the PS4/PS5 that "improves" the PAL output.

The patch upscales the PAL code to 60hz by blending frames.

But the technique has introduced these horrible ghosting artifacts.

Here's a before and after comparison.#ps5 #ps4 pic.twitter.com/S1yphRrKuQ

— Windy Corner TV - Robert (@windycornertv) May 27, 2022

It's obviously not a good look for Sony when its own official emulation is clearly one of the least effective methods out there, especially considering all the unofficial emulators out there that manage to make classic PlayStation games look absolutely glorious.

Fortunately, Sony has finally acknowledged these performance issues, and has promised that it will offer users the much improved NTSC option soon.

"We’re planning to roll out NTSC options for a majority of classic games offered on the PlayStation Plus Premium and Deluxe plan in Asia, Europe, Middle East, India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand regions," the company confirmed via the official PlayStation Europe Twitter account.

Hopefully this fix comes in sooner rather than later so we can focus on the much more enjoyable business of enjoying the vast library of new and old games.