PS5 Won't Play PS3, PS2, or PS1 Games

Today I learned: people actually expected this.

I'm not surprised. Would it have been cool? Of course.

Only people that believed/expected this were the youtubers and their "source: dood, trust me". It was announced several times it'd be PS4 only.

PS3 I can understand but I don’t think PS2 or PS1 would have been that difficult to brute force emulate. The problem is that Sony would rather sell a curated list of BC titles for £10 each than let you use age-old discs. Of course, this is because someone, somewhere would find an obscure PS2 disc that breaks everything.

Yeah, I mean I'd absolutely love it if you could play PS5, PS4, PS3, PS2, and PS1 games all in one place. It'd be absolutely incredible.

But you can't, so...

Crazy to see people lose their collective minds over this. It is what it is. I never really expected it so I guess that's why I'm not disappointed.

Not surprising, as the rumours earlier this year have long since died down. Can't say I'm not disappointed though.

Right that's it forget it I don't want one

About what I expected

It's a more soft blow considering the PS4 already houses a crap ton of remasters, remakes, ports and compilations of 6th and 7th gen titles. PS3 was obviously going to be difficult from the start given its extremely unique architecture by comparison to the 360 or the PS4, but the PS2 Classics collection needs a boost in terms of content imo if they'll be back as mainstays on the PS Store

The only major loss here is not having all the Persona and most of the Metal Gear games under one roof, but hey that's what my Vita is for

Disappointing, but not surprising. It won't deter me from buying a PS5 anyway.

It may not have gotten used as much as I think it would have, but having access to every generation of PlayStation games all on one machine would have been a dream, just to have the ability at your disposal.

If you look at the way the consoles are arranged on the stands, the PS4’s disc drive is facing the back.

Really frustrated me when I set up my entertainment center.

Also, questions for any tech people: is PS1/2 emulation really that hard to add in? My PC and phone and even a raspberry pie I coded can play Tomb Raider from a PS1.

Yeah this was always very unlikely otherwise Sony would have made a big deal out of it.

That said, casual gamers aren't clued into the gaming news cycle like we are. And the fact that we're getting this kind of statement from a Ubisoft FAQ and not Sony itself is indicative of how badly the PS5 has been explained up to this point in an official capacity.

The lack of communication and explanation is also the reason we have so many "insiders" spreading absolute nonsense to begin with. Again, this was expected, but I can't really blame more casual gamers for thinking otherwise.

Wish I would have never bought all those PSone Classics on PS3 ffs 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

What do people expect? Ps3 wasn't backwards compatible and it sold just fine, ps4 wasn't backwards compatible and it sold mega fine, so why would Sony change that now and go through more effort and recourses when they know it will still sell just fine (maybe mega fine) 😂

That's fine with me as I am keeping my PS4 discs and sell my Pro.

All other games I will play on PlayStation Now.

Oh well. That's one of the reasons I have a PC.

I think it’s not a big deal and the MINOR amount of those who do want it are just loud and make it appear that more want it than actually do.

It is not a complete shock and that this came out. And now some people are going saying stuff I am switching to Xbox and blah blah.
I still want this PS5 and this little news doesn't change that.

All I really want is for them to expand the PSN Classics lineup. The PS3 had a great selection of PS1 and 2 games, PS4 has a decent range of PS2 games. If we can get more of that on PS5 I'll be satisfied. I don't care about old discs at this point.

@Stragen8 PS1 emulation is easy. PS2 is a little trickier, but I think people overexaggerate how hard it is because the only current emulator worth using, PCSX2, is frankly taped together garbage. There are a few alternatives that are better put together, but they're still very early in development so there's not much you can do with them for now.

If it was going to be able to do that then Sony would have been shouting it from the rooftops already, so anyone who was still expecting it is deluded

@playstation_king PS3 was in fact backwards compatible, and it worked great. I loved my first one. Sadly, when it broke after four years, Sony refused to fix it.

Wasn't expecting it and didn't want it either. I know plenty of people enjoy the older games and so did I when they came out 20 years ago!!

I don’t care, going back just one generation to PS4 is enough.
I want games made just for the PS5 not Sony employees tied up messing around with getting backwards compatibility ps1,2&3 games working.
The whole idea is we move forward with new more powerful hardware for engrossing gaming experiences.

This is what I expected but still had hope. Not much, given how Sony dropped the PS2 on PS4 program as if it was a bad habit.

@Unlucky13 was it? Pretty sure I tried ps2 games in mine and it didn't work

@nessisonett actually it's not about brute force. Emulating PS1 and PS2 games on software is more than possible, the issue is doing so in a way that covers the literally thousands of games released on both systems, supporting PAL and NTSC in ways that don't encourage piracy for a cost effective price, and that wouldn't lumber Sony's engineers with a never ending seriously of tasks to make game compatible with the emulator. The PS2 and PS1 did both have slightly quirky hardware and many games from those eras coded to the metal so to speak. Talk to the people who run these emulators on PC and they'll co firm getting certain games running at all is a nightmare, but getting them running in a stable way is also another nightmare. It's a Monmouth undertaking with very little pay off either for gamers or Sony.

PS5 won't play Xbox 360 games either by the way, nor Wii games.

Ah well, not massively surprised or fussed, would have been nice but can't have everything. PS4 BC was all I desperately wanted.

@get2sammyb Something to keep in mind..

This isn't true PS1, PS2 and PS3 BC, but as we all know, a LOT of the older classics have been re-released or remastered on the PS4, so should (hopefully) work just fine on the PS5 via BC with PS4. Some examples...

Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, X and X2, Crash Bandicoot Trilogy, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, GoW3, Spyro Trilogy, Burnout Paradise, TLoU, Uncharted Collection, Abe's Oddysee, Parappa the Rapper, WipEout HD, Fury and 2048 as part of the Omega Collection. The Bioshock Collection, COD4 Modern Warfare and MW2, Batman Arkham Trilogy, AC Ezio Collection. The list goes on.

Granted it's not the complete library of content but that's not my point. Plenty of older games should work on next gen just because they've been released as PS4 games.

@playstation_king PS3 has PS1 compatibility and first generation (ps3 60Gb hdd) had also PS2 compatibility.

I would love to see a way to play digital games from older consoles much like what the Xbox side has but I wasn't really expecting it. PS Now does that anyway and I will almost certainly get that for a month or two at least.

@get2sammyb i'm not disappointed either. being able to play ps4 games is a nice enough bonus as far as i'm concerned.

@Kidfried it's like to say CD cannot play MD or Tapes... but UHD can also play BD, DVD and CD. Remove one compatibility and people won't buy it...

It is just about greed of SONY they rather sell you something you already own than let you use your copy.

@ShogunRok - i'm not sure why anyone would be confused. sony has never said anything about having bc for ps1/2/3 - only ps4.

@SirAngry That’s exactly what I was thinking, there’s enough games that just mess up for whatever reason that they’d rather not get the bad press. Plus, anyone with a copy of 007: Agent Under Fire for their PS2 remembers some rather... ‘novel’ uses for that particular game.

Disappointing sure but really I feel like I would not use the feature at all even if it was available and that is coming from someone who owns 50 plus PS2 games, I have already played all those games countless times I will be getting the PS5 to play new content, which Playstation is always good about delivering on.

It would definitely be a benefit to be able to download and play PS3 games from PlayStation now onto the PlayStation five. You’d think it would save on the cost of keeping racks of old PS3 is running in server rooms to support PlayStation now as well.

Not surprised but still disappointed. Xbox really are making all the best moves so far.

PS3 sure I can understand BC not being feasible due to the architecture.. PS1 and PS2?

No great reason imo.. unless its to lock security down with potential exploits being possible via the emulation.

Am I up in arms about it..no but it would have been pretty sweet.

Ahh well.

Did anyone actually expect this?

@playstation_king my PS3 is b/c

No really now?

@nessisonett what were those uses? I've still got the game 😂

It also does not cut onions.

perhaps sony is planning to implement some legacy b/c but it will come many years later via firmware updates. sony is already struggling to get ps4 b/c ready for its entire library so this could simply be an issue of not having enough time for launch. call me overly optimistic, but i still believe there is a chance for ps1 and ps2 b/c... but in all liklihood, we will see those games on ps now as it benefit sony more to release them that way.

@Stragen8 ps1 emulation is not difficult at all. in fact, sony already created an emulator on the psp that ran ps1 games very well. they could find a way to make that compatible with the ps5 if they wanted to "with some tweaks and improvments of course". ps2 is always going to be problematic, but they got it working on the ps4 with a curated list (very small list) of ps2 games. why sony stopped supporting this initiative is anyone's guess. most ps4 gamers don't even know of its existence. so, that means sony has a modern ps2 emulator at its disposal as well. that doesn't mean it is compatible with the vast majority of ps2 games, but it does mean that they have a foundation to pursue it. so no, it isn't an impossibility. it more has to do with business and what other plans they have in store. they probably want to add ps1and ps2 games to ps now instead and curate them that way rather than allow gamers to play their old library free of charge.

@oldschool1987 You could softmod a PS2 using clever use of disc swapping at a specific point in Agent Under Fire. I forget the details but copies were very much sought after before pirating PS2 games became widespread!

I'll never understand why people want new consoles to play old games.

We need an article to explain why you can't play PS5 on a PS4. I know some people won't understand why a console can be backward compatible but not forward compatible. Idiots exist everywhere...

you should do a poll. I bet almost no one cares as long as PS4 compatibility works. There are many ways to play past games (remasters, buy older hardware), we want new shiny stuff. PS Now is the future for backwards compatibility.

I think it's not worth the effort. Having the PS5 play PS4 games makes sense, but realistically, I think only a small percentage of people would play PSone and PS2 games on their PS5 if the option was available.

Hopefully there adding legacy games into PS Now, I think that's a better way of doing it because realistically how many people have old PS1 and 2 discs lying around these days?

@playstation_king My PS3 was! Not by choice as all launch machines were. Only ever used it for one game though, GT and that was only after a year or more due to the never ending wait for a PS3 version.

Really don't get the lead up to the next gen. Seems everyone can't wait to get a new machine just to play old games, madness! Life is too short and time too precious, like an old job or partner, you don't go back. If you're not ready to move on, don't. I know for the first time I won't be getting a PS at launch. Way too many games on 4 still left to play for that.

For me only PS4 BC is a must. The others would have been nice.

I can't believe in 2020 it seems Microsoft is more gamer friendly than Sony. Pretty big turnaround from the beginning of the generation.

Everybody who is thinking about ps1 b/c it’s just not possible due to the BR-Player inside. It just can’t read CDs. That’s out of the box from the get go.

I didnt see that coming. I predict a riot.
🥳

It’s not a must but still hoping for a custom CELL SoC to virtualize All ps3 and ps2 games.

I'm not bothered to be honest I am a huge retro gamer so I still have all my PlayStations from 1996 up to my ps4 pro so I can already play my discs.
At least Sony will now know there is a market for the older systems and games and maybe more will show up on psn or psnow

Pre-order for the pre-order duly cancelled.

@playstation_king PS3 WAS backwards compatible !!!

The world is now truly doomed.

@Chaoticwhizz You're right, this is exactly what PS Now is for! I think most sane ppl are sick of the faux internet outrage at developments like this. It's derived to create clicks for websites and views for youtube gaming commentators.

Not in the least surprised. Even the highest spec PCs have trouble emulating the PS3 in software, and last I heard, the emulator has to be tweaked for each individual title.

PS2 and PS1 probably could have been done via software emulation, but remember the PS4 won't read CDs, so I wouldn't be surprised if PS5 didn't read CDs or DVDs - might well be Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray only. Of course, they could release the games digitally, but that would be a lot of work for them, as well as potentially being quite expensive as they'd probably need to re-purchase licenses; just not worth the effort.

Can't say I'm overly bothered, personally. I still have my PS3 Slim set up (and a launch fat 60GB unit in storage), and I've used it maybe twice since PS4 launched.

@get2sammyb loll nicely said : )

@playstation_king The original ones sold in 2006 could play PS1 and PS2 games. When I got mine, I didn't even own any PS3 games for about six months afterwards because I wasn't interested in the launch titles. I played several PS2 games that I loved during that time on it.

My replacement PS3, which I bought ten years ago now, has been an extremely solid machine. Zero troubles and used all the time as both a game system and a blu ray player. But I miss the fact that it can't play PS2 discs. I've had dozens of them sitting in my entertainment center since then, unusable.

@Sknarfm What about those of us who still own tons of old games? Am I wrong to be able to want to use what I've already paid for, rather than paying again to use the same product?

Not unsurprising. I wonder what this means for PS4 ports of PS3 games though, like the first two Trails of Cold Steel games. I'd assume they're fine from what little I know of how ports work, but I'm not 100% sure.

@get2sammyb I wasn’t expecting it (even tho many things seemed to point towards it), I was moreso hoping and wishing for it. With a physical library of over 250 ps3 games, 130 ps2 games, 65 psvita games, 50 ps4 games, 40 ps1 games and 25 psp games I would’ve loved sony to support its legacy media. (Tho no way they’d support psp and vita.

LOL, Why would anybody buy a PLAYSTATION 5 to play PS1, PS2 OR PS3 games?
And before you come out and say Microsoft does it on there system?
Yeah because XBOX DOESNT HAVE ANY GAMES!!!! They have to recycle there old games to keep there fans happy

"What a surprise!" Said absolutely no one.

@BNAG_Gamer Amin brother !!

Not really surprised-though it’s this mentality that really keeps one company from being top forever, imo.

Of course, I get it-the costs associated with it don’t add up, especially since the time spent on ps1-3 games would be a fraction of time spent on ps4-5. Add in that it would cut into reselling the games again digitally. Again-lower profits and less incentives to keep adding back catalog games.

The disappointment here is there are rare games you’ll never see re-released

@nessisonett @get2sammyb It's still a bit baffling to me that Sony completely abandoned their PS1/PS2 Classics lineup on PS4. Considering how many games on those systems are expensive, I actually preferred it to physical BC.

This was an early deal breaker for me, probably wait a year or two before I get a PS5 if this is true.

As long as it is BC for PS4 games, I'm all good.... I don't have my PS1/PS2 games around with me anymore, and I have never being eager to play my PS3 games again either. I just don't care...

I wasn’t surprised, nor was I really wanting that feature. Would’ve been neat, for sure, but I definitely wasn’t holding out hope that they’d have all legacy games be compatible.

@playstation_king It's model specific. Only the launch PS3s were backwards comp. with PS2 games because they had a special chip that enabled easier emulation of such titles

The revised models got rid of that chip to lower the cost when the PS3 was not making that much money for Sony

@Dange Yeah it’s absolutely true. Most of the “essentials” are on PS4. Like you say it’s obviously not quite the same, but they’re there.

BC with PS4 is essential given the ecosystem that exists there now, but for the older platforms it's definitely not needed. Sure it would be lovely to have the option, but I think the majority of players weren't asking for this so I'll be genuinely surprised if this has any noticeable impact on sales.

Besides loot boxes, how many times have we seen outraged people say they would boycott something in this industry and anything of meaning actually happen? TLOU2 comes to mind.

It would be cool if it does, really cool. But I wasn’t expecting it to so...

This is what I expected. Sony said the ps5 was only going be backwards compatible with PS4.
all the ps1/2/3 BC crap came from people trying to promote their Twitter or YouTube accounts.

I can’t wait for the angst when people find out you can’t use a PS4 disc in an ps5 digital edition

Today I put my PS2 and PS3 away(+ games) I'm getting ready for my new SONY TV to come next week and hopefully getting a PS5 day 1 I would of LOVED a PlayStation console that could play all my PlayStation discs but it will never happen and I am starting to realise it will never happen(Yep it's taken me this long to stop dreaming) I guess SONY doesn't listen all the time like every big company out there. Oh well.

Its really pathetic on Sonys part how they pulled out of the PS2 initiative without any explanation. People clearly want these classics titles, but Sony and Jim Ryan could care less.

I don't understand why not. We had PS1 on the PS3 and PS2 on the PS4? We can't have both on the PS5? It's just stupidity on their part and the market is there or they wouldn't have made the PS1 classic. They just want to sell us unnecessary hardware or force streaming.

Also just cuz I saw someone claiming otherwise the PS3 was backwards compatible with PS1 games for all models and 2 for the original launch model. The PS4 also at least had half ass compatibility digitally with PS2 games. So wrong!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo . Split second , Blur, Mind jack, FFX111 , Over Lord 2, NFS, Naughty bear, and the other games I loved that not many people really liked much or played. My ps3 fat and slim needs repair :.(

Oh, well...
It's okay. 🙂
I already have PS2 machines (Slim and Fat) to play both PS1 and PS2 games, PS3 Slim, PS4 Slim and PSP type 3000.

I already expected vastly inferior BC compared to series X so Sony lost that fight, so just make sure we don't get inferior multiplatform releases too and I'll be good 👍

Doesn't bother me. I think PS4 bc is crucial, particularly in year 1 when new games will be thin on the ground (particularly due to the long tail impact caused by covid).

But i'm less concerned by the other systems. I have kept stacks of games from across playstation history, but in reality i have rarely, if ever gone back to play them. Whilst i regret selling my ps1, i still have a ps2 slim to play psone and ps2 games on; plus 2 ps3's - so im pretty set already.

TBH i think im going to work through my backlog on the system the games were built for, before i upgrade to a PS5. I've spent too much money on unplayed ps4 games that need to be worked through before i upgrade. As excited as i am for the new system, i almost feel like it wasn't needed yet, and another year in the fire to build a knock out launch line up wouldn't have been a bad thing.

That's a shame but the reason I'll buy ps5 is for a new game, not playing old game. It will be cool if at least sony sells some digital ps1 & ps2 games like ps3 though.

yes it will, on PS Now

Meanwhile, Series X will play Xbox, Xbox 360, XBO, and XSX games.

Fail, Sony.

Y'all should probably update the article https://twitter.com/gematsucom/status/1300540454535131137?s=19

I was able to play digital purchases of PS2 and PS1 games on a PS3. Why would I not be able to play them on a beast of a machine like the PS5.
It also really sucks that I wasted money on games I cannot play anymore, even on PSNOW.

@Unlucky13 I don't get this attitude, at all. So you have heaps of old games, don't you still have your old consoles? They won't evaporate as soon as you pick up a PS5. I also have all the old gen's of consoles. I re-bought a PS1 and PS2 (crazy cheap) and have lots of physical games. If I won't to play them I simply plug them in to a TV.

Disappointed people did it to them selves by holding on to their desire for it to be true. When Sony never said it would happen.

Personally I would have never played games like Crash, Ratchet and Clank or Medievil if they were not updated. I am fine with paying for the improvements to see old games in a new light. I have full control over what I like to see again or just say no thanks.

Previous consoles and games are cheap enough..

@nessisonett thanks, man

Fully agree with the majority. Would it have been nice? Yes. Is it s deal breaker? No. Many times I've fired up an older game, only to realise 10 minutes later I'd rather play a new release. GTA: SA for example, one of my all time favourite games. For me the control scheme is pretty much unplayable in the current age. I know a lot of people hate the fact that so many games are remastered, meaning you need to buy it again, but I would much prefer that (with updated controls) than play a legacy game with difficulty.

Some people querying why you would want to play old games?? Same reason people watch old movies, listen to old music and read old books. Because they are good and worth your time. Not all of them would be worth it but a curated selection further down the line would be welcome. Even Switch Online style. Start off with 10 PS1 classics. Although if the content of the PS1 Classic is anything to go by they may need some help on choosing classics.

Surely it must be easy for them to do though, the PS3, PSP & Vita could run them. And they already have them stored on the PS Store.

This is disappointing as the retro scene is pretty vibrant. I see people commenting that you can still play on old hardware. Well yes... kinda but not necessarily easily. PS1 and PS2 don't look as good on HD Tv's without doing some smart upscaling. There are companies out there that exclusively make devices to upscale old consoles and these are quite popular among the retro scene.

Most mainstream gamers won't care but as said, check out the Youtube profiles of some larger retro gamer channels and they are significant. Having the ability to play older games in some capacity would have been a selling point to some people.

Personally, I think Sony will be looking to monetize this in some way - possibly as part of PS Now where the emulation can be done on server and doesn't need to take up space on a machine.

I don't get why people still wan to play PS1/PS2 games..

Can someone explain to me why is this a big deal for some people ?

The whole “I don’t want resources wasted on “old” games” and “the whole idea of gaming is to move forward” baffles me.

It’s the only industry where people who claim to be “real fans” run down anything old.

Music often the opposite happens and same for movies and TV.

Gaming should be no different. So many excellent games regardless of age. The phrase “hasn’t aged well” always makes me laugh.

It’s sad that so many “fans” of gaming have this disposable approach to the industry. I constantly find older games I missed first time and often enjoy them more than the latest releases. That being said I love new games too.

A proper robust BC should be standard on all consoles and especially purchases on the online stores.

The fact that psone classics that people bought large collections of are not usable on PS4/ps5 is bordering on criminal.

Boohoo?

I mean... Not exactly something that should be a concern to any but the absolutely entitled militant outraged crew.

Leave the past in the past.. crappy graphics don’t belong on current/next gen.. move on people.. PS5 is gonna be epic.. that controller is going to literally be -game changing-

@Stocksy How on earth is that criminal?

If people have bought PS1 games, they are playable..... on a PS1!

I think, moving forward this compatibility thing is a much more important issue due to the rise of digital libraries.

If you've got a library of old PS1, PS2 or even PS3 games, there is nothing to stop you playing them on the old systems respectively.

The reason backwards compatibility is such a big deal right now, is there are a lot of people who have invested potentially thousands into a digital back catalog. Even then, if you wish, you could continue to play these games historically on your PS4 (I still don't see this as a terrible thing), however, for conveniences sake, and also to align themselves more to the likes of Steam, a digital library that is accessible across generations is a necessary theme as we move into a new era.

Old eras can continue as they were. Want to play an old game, play it on an old system, simple.

In a perfect world, would I love the ability to play the ps1-ps3 titles next gen that are dependent on my old consoles? Yes! Stuff like psn purchases of Blood Omen Legacy of kain, Suikoden 1 & 2, discs like GTA Vice City/VSC, Maximo 1 & 2, & RDR 1, LBP etc.
Having said that-this story has blown up on several sites...that Ubisoft has removed reference that the ps5 wouldn't play ps1-ps3 gen games, & Sony to date had only ever referred to ps4 b/c?!
We've heard Sony state they're testing the back catalogue for b/c on ps5. Further we've heard Sony have mandated since Aug. games will need to run on both ps4 & ps5's compatibility to get certified.
Still keen for a ps5 teardown on features, but seems like a slow news day that some sites are banging on about something Sony never promised.

PS3 understandable but ps1 and 2 shouldn’t be an issue. Cmon!

I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Also, given the option - if I had to pick between the two - I'd prefer enhanced re-releases of old games with trophies etc. to just being able to pop in a copy of Overboard and it working just like in the good old days.

I’m surprised they aren’t implementing it. I’m not surprised that old discs won’t work, I was never expecting that. But I was sort of expecting some sort of PlayStation Archives on the PS Store, where you would be able to purchase select PS1, 2 and 3 games. Shame, but not the end of the world.

If you want to waste what little time you have playing really old games on a ps5 then you really need to question why you're buying one in the first place. Let someone who wants to play gen defining games jump above you in the pre order queue instead eh?

@Steel76 Thanks for your answer, you made a great point here.

But if we buy a new generation console in 2020 it's for playing new games with new graphics etc..

For playing your old games you can still do it on your old consoles.

i think your analogy with the music is great, what happen to vinyl disc ? it became precious , and nowadays you can listen almost all your vinyl on spotify/AppleMusic/etc..

So maybe 10 years from now you can play/stream your old games without needing your old consoles (PS Now maybe ?)

This doesn't surprise me in the slightest, it's all about price. The 60GB launch PS3 is by far the best PS3 model because it had full backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2 games but it was also the model that made Sony a complete laughing stock for that generation because of its price (people will remember PS3 599 US Dollars for decades).

Because of this, Sony will always cut backwards compatibility if it affects the console price too much (PS4 backwards compatibility on PS5 is probably a minimal change to price if any).

@Grindagger the psone classics on the ps3 are not playable on a ps1.

The classics range of digital titles should work generation to generation.

Imagine apple telling you - you buy the new iPhone none of your digital purchases work. You have to rebuy music and film.

Only gamers have an attitude like yours.

Sell me the same thing digitally ten times please.

If you can’t see it’s wrong it’s on you not me

This holds no relevance to me personally. I certainly wouldnt base my new console purchase solely on this feature. I also imagine that anyone that bothered about playing retro games probably owns the original consoles they played on anyway.

Looks like the jury is still out, Ubisoft has now edited that page and removed the section where they mention PS3, PS2, and PS1. Check out the updated text.

PS1 games look terrible on a modern flat screen TV and make your eyes bleed.
PS2 games don't look too bad (especially with the Fat PS3's upscaler) but then again the PS2 was designed with wide screen TVs.
The PS3 was designed with HD Ready/Full HD TVs
The PS4 was designed for Full HD & the Pro for 4K TVs.

To be honest, I think Sony have let us down on the BC front, though perhaps we were spoilt by having the PS2 play PS1 games and the original PS3 play PS2 and PS1 games. The selection of 'classics' (in the loosest sense of the word) on the PS store is simply abysmal.
Emulation of the PS1 and PS2 should be well within the capabilities of the PS4 never mind the PS5. If Sony can't be bothered to produce a decent selection of the PS2 remasters, the they could at least modify an existing PC emulator to allow us to play old PS games if we so choose. But there's no money in that so they won't.

@Stocksy On digital titles, I can agree with you. Just to clarify my argument is on physical copies from older consoles, not the digitized versions on PS3 onwards.

On the position on PS3 digital games, I feel that it's unfortunate for a lot of people who purchased those games, as the group of people doing so back then was far far smaller than on the PS4, which is likely why it's been overlooked. It sucks, but that's business for you.

Lastly, I think this articles is meant to represent physical copies, as anything before PS3 was physical anyway, there was no digital options.

Correct me if Im wrong here, but from my understanding, any games that were purchased in the PS4 store, would fall under "PS4 Games" irreguardless of whether they were PS1, PS2 or PS3 games created to play on the PS4 platform.

@SilkySmile89 Some of Blu-ray players can read CDs, at least audio. My LG Blu-ray player plays any Audio CD flawlessly, that's how I play my CD collection via an AV receiver using an HDMI connection.

@skaarj217 it needs a additional laser to do so

@Dan_ozzzy189 agreed.

Casablanca shouldn’t work on new TVs

The Beatles shouldn’t work on mp3

You want old music listen to them on vinyl and watch old movies on black and white TVs.

Don’t “waste” time on a 4K TV watching anything but 4K.

Ridiculous argument.

Literally only gamers feel this way about anything “old”

No other industry would get away with ditching “old” content.

lol I'm with @Stocksy
I've read most of the comments on here and the amount of "who cares?" and such is unbelievable.

Yes, because adding the convenience is sooo bad. Hold up, let me pull up my PS1 that stopped working like 10 years ago or PS2 with no HDMI cable, and old clunky ass controllers because "Ps5 iS fUr nEw G3mZ OnLi"

People are acting like we are expecting the PS5 to play fawking Dreamcast. No, it's simply older games of the same brand. Like, you know Android 10 can still execute KitKat apps. 4K blurays can still play Blurays.

Even if I did have every single console in perfect condition, the amount of extra effort, cabling, set up that would go to have it all there when you can just have a SINGLE PS5 that covers all of the above, is ridiculous.

Oh, and for that guy shaming Microsoft for doing full backwards compatibility, I'm no Xbox fan but shaming a company just for doing something good makes you look like a ***** fanboy.

A lot of ignorant people here, who don't understand how backwards compatibility works, or the cost involved in introducing it into their consoles.

The reasons for not offering backwards compatibility in newer systems boil down to one thing: money. For the stripping of PS2 compatibility on the PS3, the reason was cost. It cost extra money to include the PS2’s processors in each PS3, and these processors weren’t necessary for the PS3’s base functionality. Thus, BC was deemed an unreasonable cost. But when full software emulation surfaced for PS2 Classics, Sony decided to not allow all PS3s to play PS2 discs for the purpose of selling PS2 Classics on the PlayStation Store.

PS3 compatibility on the PS4 was never intended due to the likely-extravagant costs of developing a software emulator to allow it. Note that the PS2, PS3, and PS4 all have wildly different processor architectures. (The PS1 and PS2 use different generations of MIPS, the PS3 uses PowerPC, and the PS4 uses x86–64. GPU architectures are different too, with the PS3 using a custom nVidia GeForce, and the PS4’s CPU including an on-board AMD Radeon graphics unit.) Short of including the previous generations’ hardware in the system, software emulation is the only way to have backwards-compatibility. It’s just not feasible for Sony to develop a PS3 emulator for the PS4 within a reasonable financial or time constraint. This also applies for the PS4 to PS5 in the same manner, they would of already invested a lot of cheese just to get PS5 running with PS4 BC, to add other systems with completely different infrastructure would be pointless, costly, would only cater to a small minority of their userbase and most importantly would take up space in the PS5 which would reduce it from being a better, more advanced, feature rich next gen console.

If you're going to spew ignorance over the internet, at least try to have some level of argument rather than "WAHHH, I WANT MY BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY!!! WAAAH"

It's one of those things that I thought would be cool if they did it but I didn't think this was a sure thing. Especially since you've got the different system architectures to consider. Nice to have but I'm fine with it not being there.

What would be nice is if we do get some downloadable titles from previous consoles, but what's more important for a new console are the new games on it.

Only disappointed because I know the furor that this will generate. I can honestly say that I’ve never ever used BC on anything that I’ve owned that has the feature. Anyway, haven’t the Sony people already given us an idea of the level of BC that the console will feature?

@Grindagger Microsoft does it.
That's all I gotta say to you.

The gulf here between people who understand the technical differences between platforms and those who don't is evident.

Microsoft have never really changed the architecture of the Xbox platform between generations - each iteration has been an upgrade, and while it may be more significant than PC upgrades, nothing has been too extreme to prevent backwards compatibility. This is great for existing customers because they're still able to play all their old games on the new platform, but it also limits innovation. Microsoft are stuck with a platform that uses DirectX because otherwise they lose that compatibility, and whether you talk about Xbox or Windows or Office, backwards compatibility is their brand.

Sony do things a little differently. They design each iteration around what they think is going to be important for the coming generation, without limiting that by adhering to the limitations of the previous iteration. They have then tried to always release with compatibility with the previous generation, even if that has cost them more to do. For the first three generations this was done by including hardware from the previous generation. For the PS4, PS3 compatibility would have been too expensive for the consumer, so they moved to offering backwards compatibility as a service, via PS Now, and for the PS5 they have ensured compatibility once again, but this time via hardware emulation within the new chipset.

The result of this is a competition between (rapid) Evolution and (modest) Revolution. Each practice is good for a different segment of the consumer and I'm not going to damn either for their approach. It's telling maybe that as a historic PC gamer with over 300 titles in my Steam library, I'm choosing Sony this winter.

@japongt I was going to respond, but @theheadofabroom pretty much covered what I had to say in regards to Xbox BC.

To be honest, if you'd done some research yourself before you responded, you could of saved yourself the necessity of writing that completely pointless comment.

As an aside I think it would be great for Sony to sell retro consoles in the style of the PS2 and the PS3. Maybe only the latter if they could include full back compat at a reasonable price. They could design them with HDMI passthrough to ease cable management and I think they could mop up a large portion of the retrogaming niche, as well as maybe being cheap consoles for parents with an existing library to give to their children, bringing in a new generation of fans.

Edit: the main point of these consoles would be to have hardware compatibility with the original disks while also providing upscaling to modern resolutions. Maybe include an online digital store in a later iteration if it seems like there's demand

Cerny: The way we achieve backwards compatibility is by using the previous chip on our new chipset — we're only using PS4's chip

People on the Internet: I sure hope they have PS3/2/1 backwards compatibility!

It's funny how a company can tell people something and they expect the complete opposite.

@johncalmc Overboard??...name rings a bell,pretty sure I rented that a couple of times from the video store! Was that an overhead view where you were blowing up Pirate ships etc. & sailing in between islands? Some nice/forgotten ones on ps1...apart from the greats like the Suikoden titles,FF7, Abe's Oddysee,Twisted Metal World Tour etc., still recall stuff like Alundra,The Adventures of Lomax,or even Lost Vikings 2 Norse by Norsewest!

@graysoncharles my argument throughout has been consistent it’s about access to classic games and especially those already sold on the network.

I want to be able to watch movies that first came out on Betamax

Which I can.

All of the games are on disks.

Blu-ray players can play CDs and DVDs.

No one expects them to play VHS.

So it’s not the same and you know it pal.

@Robocod Yeah it was a weird pirate shootery thing back on the original PlayStation. Hard as nails from what I remember. Either that or I couldn't be bothered to learn how to play it.

Of course they wernt lol , with PlayStation now they won't. A change of president that wants backwards compatibility is what's needed, he said he didn't want to play old games basically.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could just play my downloads from the ps3 on newer hardware. Sure I'd rather play the discs but emulation isn't that hard is it?

@HollowSpectre In a word? Yes

Essentially you have to look at the differences in architecture between the Cell processor architecture and the more conventional x86 architecture of modern games consoles (there are still deviations from PC architecture). You could define a mapping of different processor instructions between different CPU and GPU architectures, but that is going to add overhead. Add to that the differences in memory architecture and there simply isn't enough bandwidth to virtualise a PS3 in real time, even with the original engineers, design documents and patents.

This means you have to take short-cuts to optimise for common operations - pretty much all emulators do this, and for older architectures like the PS1 that's actually pretty effective (not to mention that hardware is at a point where you can now brute-force a lot we couldn't a decade ago). As you move between generations however, the design and architecture of these systems becomes more complicated. We still don't have perfect emulators for the PS2 which will work with every game, and a first-party product needs to work that flawlessly for customers to be satisfied. This is why the PS3 dropped PS2 BS part way through its lifecycle to cut costs - there wasn't any cheap way to do it.

A team of Sony engineers probably /could/ build a flawless PS2 emulator, and /maybe/ a PS3 emulator that runs 90% of the back catalogue, but in that time they could also churn out probably 5 brand new games or remaster 10 old ones for the new architecture while integrating current-gen quality-of-life improvements.

Simply put, customers aren't willing to pay for the work to be done, so it won't. This is where I suggest that the cheaper option might be to manufacture some of the old hardware, as fabrication costs have gone down and they'd only have to make enough for the market who are interested. Hopefully this is something we'll see over the next decade or so.

Edit: spelling and grammar

@johncalmc Here we go...wow,forgot about some of the obstacles!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkf3sMdUsrg

@japongt the majority of people do not have their PS1/PS2/PS3 games around anymore for one reason or another (if you think otherwise, then you are just delusional), either because they lost them, sold them, or gave them away.

Believe it or not, a lot of people just don't like having old ass video games around their houses/apartments collecting dust and taking space, especially when they know they aren't going to be using those things again in the future in a substantial way.

So yes, for them, absolute BC with PS1/PS2/PS3 games (discs) is just worthless, so they do not care... Now, you can either accept it or be a t**** about it.

Discs I understand but locking out digital legacy games? No excuse really.

It was said before, that Microsoft is poring so much money in BC it’s because they didn’t have to many first party studios and other then 3 franchises Xbox one was devoid of 1st party games. Even for Microsoft BC it’s not easy. You don’t put the disk inside and starts playing. It’s just validating the disc and the game is downloaded from the internet, a modified version that’s actually playable on the system. And Microsoft invested money in to each title to make it playable. It’s not just directX or architecture every game needs validation.

@nessisonett appreciate the info👍

Yes, backwards compatibility for PS1 games is SOOO hard it was digitally done on friggin' PSP.

The lengths people are going to defend this nonsense screams nothing but fanboy-ism.

@japongt If you read my comment you'd see that I had admitted that PS1 is easily emulated. I can do it on my phone. The problem is that progressive generations got more complex at a rate we are not able to match by throwing sheer brute processing power at the problem.

I've never owned a Sony console. The last console I owned was a Wii. I'm the furthest you'll find from a fanboy, and I'm just trying to explain what I know from my degree in Computer Science and my years of experience as a professional developer. Do with that as you will.

@theheadofabroom Fair enough, and I wasn't directing my comment at you per se. But that begs the question doesn't it, why can't they then have backwards compatibility for PS1 when it's so easy? I understand your point with PS3, they did make that one particularly tough to do. But they can put minimal effort on PS1 and maybe PS2 to make it happen (and for PS3 maybe allow digital transfers for the game, eventually). It's not as big of a money issue as some people are making it out to be, not in this day and age where any John Doe that knows a thing or two about emulating can replicate on the average phone.

@japongt I'd guess it's not worth the hassle. That the PS5 is BC with only the PS4 would be a clear message if they would actually spell it out. I'd guess marketing had one idea while the engineers had another 🤷‍♂️

Disc BC would require putting a CD reader head in the disc drive, which they haven't done, probably to fractionally cut costs, but then the disc-based PS5 would have had BC for the PS1, meaning the PS5DE is now unable to do something which the disc-based console can, contrary to their strategy of driving consumers away from optical media, when any average Joe who wants to emulate a PS1 has tons of options already.

So those tons of options: they're all legally murky. There's nothing illegal about the emulators themselves, but unless you have the original CD and the hardware and technical knowledge (low boundaries, but infrequently cleared) to make an iso from the CD you already own (and the right to format shift media varies between jurisdictions) then you're stuck with other people's ISOs, which is a theft of intellectual property from the publisher (aka piracy). Sony don't want to be seen to condone this for multiple justifiable reasons. They also probably don't have the rights to use existing emulators so they would have to build their own.

The PSP: I'm not familiar with handheld hardware so I can't say whether its PS1 games were achieved by hardware compatibility or emulation. What I can say is that you needed a UMD disc or a store download to play them, which handily gets around any rights issues. But these games would have been a remaster rather than strict BC, as you could not put the PS1 disc you already owned into your new system and play it.

So here we are in a position where full BC with the PS1 across the new platform is impossible, and BYO ISO is legally too hot to touch. Whatever you do is going to technically be a remaster, and you can't yet easily automate the remastering of games for intermediary generations. In this position I can do one of three things: I can either 1) throw resources at remastering my entire back-catalogue of first-party titles and spin this as a form of BC (this is what MS are doing with their enhanced BC where they actually recompile the codebase for each platform), I can 2) work on building an in-house ecosystem around emulation and streaming with its own robust DRM, or I can 3) just do nothing.

In the initial stages you can't tell the difference between these, but by this point I'm pretty sure option 1 is out of the running - it's too late for launch at least, and it only works for PS1, maybe PS2, and it only covers titles they have the rights to and still have the source code for.

This leaves options 2 and 3. I'd hope for option 2, but could understand going for option 3: it's a lot of hassle for very little return. The people who want PS1-3 compatibility aren't going to get that by buying the competitor's system so it's just bad publicity, which at this point they can cope with.

Option 2 looks a lot like what they've been doing with PS Now, so I guess that's what they'll do.

It's still not BC. You're still going to have to either buy or rent your games again. My preference is that these remasters are carefully made forwards-compatible so that we don't have to keep repurchasing with every new generation.

Surely Sony could just put a stop to this debate and tell us play does in fact have a limit and that limit is ps4. Then we can all get on with our lives. Even this news suggests they have been told to remove it by Sony, why are they playing this game?

Not surprised in the least.... But seriously... Does anyone honestly still have games for PS1,2&3 still? I know that I don't... Sold them and the system when I upgraded.
Will most likely do the same with PS4 as most of my games are digital anyways.

@nessisonett PS2 had a custom chip that is almost impossible to emulate.

@Robinsad It's pretty obvious that PS5 won't be able to emulate the cell processer of the PS3, the PS2 had custom chips that cause problems with emulation and do you really want to play PS1 games? They haven't aged well.

@Angeljuice It’s honestly not. There are issues with flawless emulation but it’s not impossible in the slightest. Look how many games are emulated across PS3 and PS4 without issues.

@Angeljuice they have already emulated 1 and 2, but if it so obvious why dont they just say so, and why do they go out of their way to get information that states otherwise removed?
Sony's communication in this has been abysmal. It started off enticing small bits and has turned to a bit of a disaster to be honest. It will still sell, I will still buy one but they are doing damage to themselves now i think.

While everyone is so busy talking about how this was expected, im still quite shocked that seemingly no one read any of the articles in the past about a patent Sony filed for cloud emulation for the earlier consoles on the PS5. I really with i could post a picture here taken directly from the patent showing the first 3 consoles. How is this not known by PushSquare??

@japongt not fanboisim, but complete ignorance and stupidity, it was the same situation with ps3, ps4 and it never gets old but it is tiring.🙄

@Unlucky13 You keep your old consoles. Pretty simple.

@Sknarfm They don't last forever, though. My second PS3 is ten years old now, after the original one died after four years. Once they one does go, I"ll have dozens of PS3 games I'll be unable to play. Same as how I now have dozens of PS2 games the same way, given than the slim PS3 won't play them.

@Unlucky13 Totally fair comment. However, I'd counter by saying that PS3s and PS2s are cheap as heck. At least in NZ here. I can imagine in the UK or US they're cheaper still.