Sony Interactive Entertainment announced in very late March that it is expanding its PS Plus subscription service. Additional tiers beyond the basic ones will give you access to games on previous generation consoles somewhat like the Xbox Game Pass. Where most games you can download, PS3 games are limited to being streamed, which explains why it’s not available for us in Malaysia.
But it looks like that may change sometime in the future. According to Jeff Grubb during the GamesBeat Decides podcast, he says that “Sony might be working on emulation for PS3, for PS5”, citing insider sources. He also notes that “it might take some time”.
The exclusion of PS3 games in markets without PS Now streaming services was a massive omission from the expanded PS Plus service. Even in places with the service, the fact that PS3 games are only accessed via streaming and not downloads was a point of contention.
PS3 emulation was notorious for being tricky, mostly thanks to the complicated Cell processor. It makes sense that SIE is holding back on announcing it. On the other hand, if it proves to cost more than it’s worth, the plan can be scrapped more easily if it was never publicly announced.
(Source: Jeff Grubb’s Game Mess / YouTube)
