Backward compatibility is a feature that many people hope for when upgrading to a new console. While everyone is excited about what is coming next in gaming, having the ability to boot up your old games when you’re feeling nostalgic is great too. Unfortunately, though, there are much bigger forces at play regarding which console plays what from past systems. With this in mind, can you play PS3 games on your PS5?
Is there a way to play PS3 games on PS5?
Unfortunately for those who have a lot of love for late 2000s gaming, the PS5 does not natively play PS3 games. If you put a PS3 disc into your PS5, it will not recognize it, and you cannot download and play PlayStation 3 games from the store or PS+ tiers.
With that all said, you technically can play a selection of PS3 games on your PS5 if you are a PS+ Premium subscriber. This is the top tier of this subscription and is unavailable to Extra and Essential subscribers. The catch here, though, is the only way to play the PS3 games is through streaming. You can not download and play the game, so you may deal with some latency and stuttering issues depending on your internet connection.
You may be wondering why you can download and play PS1, PS2, and PS4 games but not PS3 on your PlayStation 5, and all of that comes down to how Sony developed the PlayStation 3 console. The internal workings of the PS3 made developing games for it pretty difficult compared to the Xbox 360 at the time. Now, those PS3 games are very difficult to emulate, while all kinds of 360 games are playable on Xbox Series X.
If there is a PS3 game that you love, your best hope is to find a PS4 version of the game and play that on your PS5. For example, The Last of Us was a PS3 original that got a remaster on PS4 (and even a remake on PS5). However, games that stayed exclusive to that console will be a little tougher without owning a PS3.
