Xbox Is Stepping Up Its Backwards Compatibility Efforts Again, to the Envy of PS5 Fans

Theres a good chance this is just for the next Xbox.

Say what you will about Xbox but this is absolutely one of the best things they got going with their ecosystem. Both Sony and Nintendo could be doing better in this department.

Whatever it ends up being; Xbox doing something good shouldn’t be frustrating. Preservation is always a good thing no matter who does it. Would love for Xbox to make the older Tony Hawk games BC.

Playstation will be slacking in this department until they give me Dynasty Warriors 2 and 3 with trophies. So yea they suck.

I honestly don't think the majority of PS5 owners want to play older games, especially the casuals which are the majority.

@UltimateOtaku91 Unfortunately true, most even turn their noses up at pixel graphics and make smart ass comments like "is this a mobile game" or "is this ps5 pro enhanced"

I dont mind remasters / remakes that bring a game up to date, but aside from very select PS4 games that have been patched to run at 60fps, I just don't see the need to go back further, except maybe the odd 2D sprite based game.

That said, I would really like to play the original PS1 home release of Street Fighter Alpha 3 (complete with what I think was called World Tour, and the completely devastating and fun Shin Akuma). Every version I have seen since has always been based on the arcade, not the home edition which had much more single player content.

@UltimateOtaku91 I mean, if they don't have the option how can we know if you they do or don't?

Being honest I don’t play old games really to many new ones at the moment. Even though I can on GPU, it is wasted on me.

But I will also be honest and Sony are bare minimum at most things the last two years and so are Nintendo even with switch 2 that I have preordered but might surrender it, looking at their in house AAA release line up and the rest of this year.

Not sure what’s up with these big companies but it isn’t like it used to be. I’m sure it’s so much more about the money now a days.

I wouldn't be surprised if that new Xbox backwards compatibility is to get their existing bc games running on PC. It seems increasingly likely their next "console" will be a PC in a box and there's that new Xbox handheld PC on the way. So I'm not convinced this about bringing more old games forward.

As for Playstation, I'd much rather see them remaster stuff like Resistance, Infamous and Motorstorm as opposed to backwards compatibility

But everything’s an XBOX?

This is such a no-brainer that it's incredibly frustrating we've heard nothing about PS3 backwards compatibility.

If the process is on a game-by-game basis, why not just roll them out slowly? We don't need a giant dump of PS3 games, but even just having an official comment that they're working on it would be reassuring.

At this rate, we'll see Xbox 360 games compatible with PS5 before we see PS3 games...

Why backwards compatibility when you can sell remakes and remasters?

@Frmknst “ How much time fo people have when they play old games with so many great constant releases”

When most people can’t afford to purchase new games with the continued raising cost of game and living… A lot of people are reverting back to playing those old games.

@Rich33 There are a lot of really excellent PS3 games that we've not seen any remasters for and would be really nice to play on modern hardware. I'm thinking Resistance, tons of great Ratchet & Clank games, Spec Ops The Line, etc.

Its awesome backwards compatible games but i played Syphon Filter from the PS1 and the only thing i have to say remaster it remake or atleast change the controls i just cant play it anymore. The PS3 if they would be able to remaster them that would be awsome. There are some awsome old PS2 games Dark Cloud give me a part 3 polish them to perfection with new controls. Infamous all of them port them i want to play them again.

Fallout 3, Fallout NV, GTA IV and Dragon Age: Origins remasters please for PS5 and I'll shut up about everything else.

I would love to be able to slam my ps3 disc's into my ps5 and play. Ps6 better me backwards compatible with ps4 and 5 at thr very least

***** if they can give me infinite undiscovery and lost odyssey at 4k 60fps with there emulation I'm in cuz trying to do that on pc ain't so great 😒

This sounds more like making sure that series and one games will run on the alleged handheld Xbox is working on more than bringing over OG Xbox games

@wildcat_kickz
I definitely think they need to start looking a bit further back when looking at remasters / remakes - I mean look at the quality of Demon Souls remake, and whilst Bloodborne isnt a very old game, its still older than a lot of what they have been doing recently, and is probably the most requested remaster / remake by a fair way.

@Vivisapprentice There were quite some nice exclusive awsome titels that are lost to time indeed especially from their own studio's.

Overrated.

It's a nice distraction playing older games but the hypocrisy is crazy. Everyone's moaning at a lack of new games this generation and complaining about all the remakes and remasters of 'older' games. Yet they're frothing at the bit for BC. Make it make sense.

@Rich33 Infamous, Motorstorm, Resistance, God of War, Killzone, Starhawk, Folklore, Heavenly Sword, Dark Kingdom.

I just want a way to play Scarface without tracking down a ps2 or an xbox

@daveofduncan

Older games run and look better on modern hardware, they're usually a lot cheaper. Or you know, if you still have them, you can play them without buying them again.
And then there wouldn't be as much remasters and remakes (that might be wishful thinking).

I don't see why it doesn't make sense. Instead of playing The Last of Us ReReReRemaster I could play Folklore and not complain.

Sadly from a business perspective, I suspect Sony look at the amount of time players put into those older titles on PS Plus, and are of the view that they are better off focussing elsewhere where there is likely to be a better return on their investment

The ability to easily play 99% of old OG Xbox and 360 games is the sole reason I bought the XSX

@wildcat_kickz i can already answer that in that ps3 b/c is never coming.

@Vivisapprentice just out of curiosity , you said you have ps3 discs , i would assume you still have a ps3? if you don't why haven't you sold them?

@Drago201 I can confirm that BOTH are BackCompat and available Digitally on Xbox Series X (I own them) not sure about an FPS Boost to 60fps in those games though (I'd have to go check)

When there are remasters you can run by insterting PS4 copy, WhatTheFu.. is so hard to do that with older systems???

Insert PSX, PS2 or PS3 disc, download that game, play your game from HDD while your disc work as software key???

It is super easy...

@MrRhysReviews they currently have no boost to resolution or fps sadly

@mattyjam More like 4% of OG Xbox and 28% of Xbox 360.

And my Sony backwards-compatibility is called "PS3." PS5 is for 8th and 9th gen!

If anyone at Sony sees this I’d appreciate it if you put fallout new vegas, infamous 1+2, modnation racers, the ps2 ratchet games, and little big planet 1+2 on ps5! I’m aware the servers for modnation and lbp are down I’d pay just to play story mode tbh.

@djlard except its not really that easy. you just can't make the game magically appear on ps5 for those games , and the discs aren't readable either. it works because ps4 games are natively able to play on the ps5 , while the ps1/ps2/ps3 discs aren't. to be honest idk why this is still a topic in 2025 , because we know its not happening and sony has been up front about it.

@ButterySmooth30FPS i actually just booted my ps3 up and got a software update lol i wasn't expecting another update in 2025 but here we are.

I need to get myself a used Xbox One because it supposed to have great 360 emulation they are going rather cheap too at CEX. It's great that I can have that machine to play 360 games still with better emulation on a bigger TV.

As for Sony side of things I've kept my PS3 and last year got a used PS2 of course I would have wanted my entire games to play with every new console generation but Sony have always shown no interest in it they only buckle because of demand for a little bit

Maybe PS6 will have BC with PS1-3 disc. But for PS5 it's not gonna happen since the hardware and OS wasn't design to read and play PS1-3 disc.

And as much as i enjoy replaying PS1-3 games, i think a lot of them needs a remaster with some QoL.

@Frmknst development cycles can take a decade I have plenty of time for old games when I don't consume most games coming out because the content doesn't appeal to me. I got over lowering my expectations and playing games because they were there not because they were something I wanted to try

I still play modern games but to be honest ive spent more time playing Sega mega drive and N64 over ps5 games in the last year

@ppitchfork scarface was so underrated I recall there was a PC version which is now considered abandon were so it's free to download and a toaster could run it

I'd be happy if they just let us download games like Fallout3 and many others on Premium rather than have to stream them. I've tested it with all kinds of great internet and it still never feels the same. If they want start somewhere they can start there. Of course if they released a machine that could magically play ps1/ps2/ps3 games I'd buy one in a nanosecond.

@twitchtvpat Good ol' BluRay key updates! I think there's at least one of those per year. Still makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

@PuppetMaster i highly doubt the ps6 will have this , i'd be happy with ps4 / ps5 bc which will happen. too bad they didn't go amd with the ps3 i think that would have solved a lot of issues with what we are dealing with now. but like you said , i still have a ps3 and some games are still playable , and other games including older ones don't hold up visually and game play as well. a resistance remaster collection would be very welcomed.

A shame that, i read that all previous gen games on xsx get a boost, with no update.

Games like project car2, run really with low res, bad contracts, horrible shadows, and 30 fps in replays on ps5, shame.
Idk how games like rdr2 run on xsx but if it can give a boost to fps, it be nice to have that on ps5.
Even more so for games like bloodborne that sorely need it.

Plus in xsx you can play old splinter cell games etc.

I think PS3 and maybe Vita emulation should be figured out sooner rather than later on PS5 because I think that it would good on Sony if they were able to have almost all digital PS3 and Vita games be playable right away because of your PSN Account. I think that would bring lots of goodwill, and would allow Sony to just have almost the entire PS3 PSN Catalog be sold all over again to people.

Imo Sony has a truckload of classic games all ready to go, but with PS Premium they want to hook people long term and not release to many at a time. I believe when these games release they've been ready to release for months.

I really feel the problem of Sony dropping backwards compatibility is an issue the Industry created years ago. In my opinion of course.

When the ps3 launched it was capable of playing all it's current previous gen games. That was one of the a big selling points back then, not to mention it had 4 usb ports sd card reader and was wirelessly able to conect to the internet not to mention it was also the cheapest Blu-ray player you could buy at the time.
Compared to the 360 it shouldn't have even been a question what people should have chosen but the price difference was far to large at the time also the 360 came out a year earlier.
All that aside one of the reasons the system was so high was instead of utilizing soft ware to handle the older gen games they were putting the components from the ps1 as well as the ps2 into the ps3.
At that time alot of people and outlets criticized the idea of BC to the point Sony created a different ps3 sku all together at first minimizing the backwards compatibility with the 80gig model then just dropping it all together with any other iteration.

Obviously cost will always be the factor as to why people lean one way or the other but the actual value of the tech at the time was in my opion a reasonable price to pay.
I feel of they weren't so scrutinized over BC back then they would have continued to be more forward thinking when it came to future systems.

@daveofduncan if you already have the game you will not need to buy it again. I have a lot of Xbox and 360 games that play very well on the new consoles. You just put your disc in and it downloads what is needed for you. Fallout 3 and New Vegas is like playing a new game they run so much better. Red Dead Redemption is another game that come to mind. Backward Compatible is a nice feature.

Funny how PS3 had loads of media functionality and BC with PS2 (at first) and PS1. PS5 can't even play music CDs. Can no longer stream my music from DLNA server like I could with PS3 and PS4. And back compat is just PS4 or go buy the games again on the digital store, and no native PS3 emu.
It's pretty poor. They could have had full PS1 and PS2 back compat using discs, they could have done select PS3 games that could actually be emulated on PS5. But no.

Meanwhile Xbox at least tries with various stuff. I have assorted original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games on disc that work on the Series X. It's not perfect, as many don't work. But it's better than nothing. And various games get their FPS boost mode and Resolution boost mode too.

@Arkz but from the launch they said ps4 and ps5 does not have b/c and can't play those games , they never claimed it was coming , they never claimed or dangled a carrot of false hope. so i don't really understand why people keep bringing it up thinking it could or will happen when they said its not.

The reality is only a minority actually go back and play these games and Sony knows this.

It's not worth the effort in my eyes.

And it seems the majority don't think so either when we are at 70m ps5 sold.

@Bez87 yes and no , i feel like the older versions not so much but elder scrolls oblivion remaster proves that people would replay older game that have improvements , i feel like they have infamous , killzone , resistance remasters/remakes with improvements i think they would do well.

@twitchtvpat we are talking backwards compatability and not remasters or remakes or reboots.

Which I agree with you on.

I'm the worst person though because I was there since before the ps1 and I have 0 desire to go back and play those games.

I appreciate them for what they are and what they did for pushing the industry forward but I don't want to spend my time playing a ps1 game.

On the other hand though. I'm all for developers picking up classic games and remaking them.

I think capcom has done it best with their re imagining of their games in a modern way.

Then again Sony was using blue point as a developer to do this and they were masters at it.

So I'm in agreement more of those and less caring about backwards compatability.
Ps premium is probably the best way to handle it though but they aren't even doing much with that either.

@Frmknst most who complain about the lack of backward compatibility don’t even utilize it when it’s an option. You notice rereleases of old games never show up on anyone’s playlists? They just like to complain.

@AhmadSumadi "Ugh, why are we getting all these rereleases of OLD games?! Where's the 6 brand new Sony IPs I demand weekly?!"

@twitchtvpat I'm not claiming they said or suggested it. I'm saying it just plain sucks that it doesn't. Especially when the competition does.

As far as Sony is concerned I have given up. I ripped all my games from PS1, 2, PSP the Vita ones that do not have PS4 or Steam versions. I simply play them in my Steam Deck. However, I still buy them if they end up getting released. In fact the last game I bought some time ago for my PS4 and 5 was the Dino Crisis classic.

Except MGS4 a lot of PS3 games that people may want to play have PS4 or Steam versions, so I ended up not ripping those. I miss my SEGA classics in PS3 like Outrun though.

@Frmknst New doesn't mean better nor does it mean it will suit every individual taste. There are exactly three games out this year that I care about, and there is a lot I missed in previous console generations. This has been a heavy backlog year so far, and it will continue to be.

To the wider topic at hand, I can emulate PS3 games just fine on a 6 year old office computer with a workstation graphics card using software built by people doing it for free as a passion project. There's no technical reason that the PS5 couldn't play every generation of PlayStation just fine with the resources that Sony has at its disposal. It should be possible for me to put in any PlayStation disc that I own and play. Sony can't sell it to me for a third or fourth time if I could do that...

The fact that I can buy and play all 3 parts of Final Fantasy 13 on my Xbox but not my PS4 or 5 tells you everything you need to know.

I sometimes wistfully think of the glorious alternative reality where the early model PS3 was a massive success, the Cell was a joy to work with and had a bright future rather than being a nightmarish technical dead end, and backwards compatibility was a given in every future PlayStation. Imagine an alternate reality PS5 capable of playing all those disc-based games from the PS1 era onwards. Imagine it with the colour PS badge which could change orientation for extra wistfulness.

In the meantime, I wish they'd at least release older games at a faster rate on the PS Store.

No new licenses/IPs will come in like PS back compat still is.

The PS back compat offerings are going at a fair rate for what licenses/IPs they are working with, what platforms and what emulators they have. So I'm not questioning it. I would WHAT IPs get on there as to me many Xbox ones could have come to the platform but they haven't.

I will question the same with PS back compat till it's eventual end as well. Companies with IPs they don't care about, let alone others they may want to handle themselves.

Source code or other things, it all varies. I'll say this Sony offering Kinetica and others are a treat and absolutely amazing to see I do want to buy it/held off but will eventually.

But otherwise yeah I do question how long PS back compat has got for third party releases, what source code, what reverse engineering if they care to go that far and what games we see as many studios/games are dead and many I'd like to see won't happen.

Even PSP had a gap in digital releases for PSP/Vita and many of those are never going to happen on this service/digital releases. I can tell. For what is already there it's fair releases so far but hardly the types of games I'd LIKE to see on there of PS2, PSP or PS1 games.

I'd love to buy Mercury, Exit, Cube, Crush, Practical Intelligence Quotient and more. All great PSP puzzle games but nope, not even digital PSP versions only physical.

Where is Kula World/Roll Away (Gravity Trickster is close but showing that to people is a waste of time), Devil Dice/it's PS2 sequel.

Many like Scaler, Dr Muto, Coded Arms KONAMI!!!! Under The Skin CAPCOM!!!! You can make it live service due to the way perks work or whatever. But nope. What a multiplayer game with RE3 characters/map, fair solo modes and a good cell shaded artstyle alongside a suitable to modernise or just add modern multiplayer to and port it/emulate it. Like come on. It's so easy to convert it.

SO many others. Will Blasto even appear on here? Or other PS IPs that go super deep? Will Toro games appear?

We won't see PN03 from Capcom on NSO I bet. Will we Geist/Eternal Darkness who knows. Cubivore even? I doubt it.

Racing ones I'd like to see won't happen either. Cars, advertising, tracks, sponsors, music, etc. It's why I don't mind fictional ones or anti-grav ones.

Xbox side of topic:
This will be all existing and Series S/X games to the next console. Hardly anything to get excited about.

Depends what frame rates and resolution, HDR, etc. other features happen with next consoles but otherwise nothing that exciting unless your into that sort of stuff.

I don't care for these benefits of the next console and frame rate/resolution and more increases. I just don't.

I don't even care for this gen's games why would I benefits to them if I'm not going to play/buy them anyway when the game design is as uninteresting as it is. XD

@IntrepidWombat its not happening as much as you want it to. and sony has even stated this.

@VeganHerpes You'd have a point if the vast majority of games that have seen remakes and remasters weren't already backwards compatible, but they are.

Demon's Souls is probably the only one that isn't, and that remake was a massive undertaking and overhaul.

@EfYI people don't buy new games and wait for them to be on sale but also question why sony isn't making new games.

I have quite a selection of PS1 games up in my loft.... it would be amazing if Sony found a way to update the PS5 so I can pop the discs in and play them.

Admittedly if I really wanted to I can set my PS3 up and play them on there but it would be nice to do it on my PS5 for the sake of convenience if nothing else

@UltimateOtaku91

Since there are no new Sony games, PS5 players play a lot of old games. Sony has been a huge disappointment this generation when it comes to new games. And the same goes for Xbox.

@twitchtvpat I still have my ps3, I sold my ps4 since 5 was bc. Also sold my original Playstation as ps2 was bc. So yeah, if there was a one stop box like xbox I would also sell my ps3 and ps2

Also, if there were no emulators for previous consoles (Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, Xbox), many games would be a thing of the past, i.e. many players would not be able to play masterpieces that were released, for example, 10-15 years ago.

@IntrepidWombat exactly this, I can emulate ps3 games just fine on a steam deck so they should be able to on ps5. Will have to see if they do so. Games like little big planet would be brilliant to play again

I'm not getting rid of my PS2, but I wish I could unplug it and pack it away.

Backwards compatibility, although it would be nice and probably should just be mandatory at this point, isn’t as big a deal as people think.

It’s another classic example of the internet bubble hyping something that isn’t a factor to 90% of the consoles audience.

@K1LLEGAL I don't think that they meant Xbox doing the thing was frustrating, but that it's frustrating watching Sony do essentially nothing for backward compatibility, while Xbox are far ahead on the issue and are still doubling down.

@GabrielBacakPS Hard core gamers maybe are playing older games, I know I've played some this past year. But for the casuals that just play online games and the odd single player game I doubt will touch any old games at all.

@Frmknst Would you play a new game designed to look old? Like Crow Country or a pixel art platformer? If so what's the difference?

Old doesn't mean you've already played it, and new doesn't mean good. There's a ton of old games I've not yet played that I'd rather play over a ton of the new Gaas releases or CoDs or EA Sports games etc.

I think, instead of so many remasters/remakes, and failed pursuits of the live service sphere, it would be silly of Sony not to just have a team that could be working on bringing up to scratch a few of the older gems, and specifically some of the rarer late ps2 to ps3 titles. They need not have all the bells and whistles, so to speak, but it'd be nice to be able to play a few gems from that time on the modern hardware. Premium seems to be a right step, (and with that, having those individual titles available for purchase) but content-wise, it's pretty slow going.

I don't care about Microsoft. But sucks you can't play PS3 games on PS4 or PS5. It don't matter to me anyway as I don't play old games. As long as PS6 can play PS4 and PS5 games, then should be good.

@UltimateOtaku91
If I could put my copy of PS1 Bloody Roar in my PS5 I’d be extremely satisfied.
Would be nice not to drag out the PS2 every time I wanted to play a few rounds.

@wildcat_kickz Couldn't agree more! And for so many reasons, despite its flaws, I still feel ps3 was something of a golden age... and the console also had backwards compatibility!

@Disan
100% This!

@twitchtvpat Oh, I'm fully aware. That's why I'm not shy about being all in on emulation.

If I'm not mistaken, the reason Sony keep tripping over themselves when it comes to PS3 emulation is because of the architecture of the PS3 itself.

I still think Sony should do more with emulation efforts.

I want Backward Compatibility with actual disc to play.
If PS6 have BC with PS1, PS2 & PS3 disc, I will be so happy.

Unfortunately the PS5 can't read CDs and DVDs so true backwards compatibility is not possible and I don't expect it to happen with the PS6.

It's really a shame that many refuse to play retro games just being the graphics. Many old games are more worth to be played than many new ones.

I know it's not in their control, but I really wish Sony would release Wild Arms 4 and 5 to newer systems. Playing them on the PS5 would be awesome.

It's not just the relative lack of back catalogue titles available, but whomever is responsible for supposedly chasing PS1/PS2 etc., classic content seems to be doing a lousy job at it!
Away from Disney,there's been VERY sparse third party content from the likes of Namco, Capcom,E.A ,Ubisoft,& others.

Compare to the likes of say the GOG Store which has all three "Classic" RE 1,2,& 3, games & recently added one of the Breath of Fire games whereas Playstation players had to wait an age to even be able to buy RE1,& for Dino Crisis to even get finally released!🙄

Won't say every game always might be 100% like anything on PC,but I do appreciate them running dedicated voting polls to try pitch chasing certain classic titles...feels far more engagement & effort vs what Sony has done.
Nevermind where Hermen Hulst spent big on not only startup studios,Bungie,& even PC & Mobile dev studios &/or PS4 to PS5 full priced remasters but couldn't be bothered porting some PS3 locked franchises ala LBP, Motorstorm,Resistance,Infamous, & others to PS4/5 gens if emulation was considered "too hard"!

Microsoft is hiring people to make sure older games run on their next Xbox: the PC.

still have my ps3 and prefer to play ps3 games on it anyway & i like the DS3 more than the dualsense.

The real dream would be the next PlayStation console being fully back compat with all previous generations, but that's really looking increasingly less likely.

I've still got my PS2/PS3 hooked up for a select few handfuls of games (primarily the former) — that number is slowly being whittled down, but I'd really love just a single unit with the ability to play everything natively, without emulation.

@Andee the launch ps3 used to be like that, but people took it for granted and unfairly deem the ps3 one of the worst playstations

@nomither6 Yeah, people had become accustomed to it because PS2 did it. But with PS2 b/c kinda went under the radar because there were so many new and original games being made for it, PS3 was the generation where we started seeing HD remasters, and PS5 seemingly has no intention of stopping that any time soon...

Going back to the analogue dpad/buttons, I found the DS3 a lot spongier and less satisfying to use than the DualSense.

@Andee i hear you on that about the DS3; don’t get me wrong, i believe that objectively the dualsense is the best gaming controller yet. it’s just that for me personally, i prefer the DS3 as a personal favorite. I love the weight, size, feel, & design of it. no touchpads & the classic ps layout, and the vibration feels more punchy - and that battery life🔥

As for b/c the ps3’s cell processor will make it costly if another playstation comes along and is able to play its games. we’re looking at mid to high end pc prices if a playstation comes along that can play all generations & im all for it tbh - you get what you pay for

but it should be two models though , a base model & the pro model that’s b/c

@nomither6 Yeah, I had a final sliver of hope that that's what the PS5 Pro might have been — for £700, that might just have clinched it for me, given I'd be trading in like three consoles to get credit to pay for it

It's always annoyed me that I have dozens of digital games on my PS3 that are worthless as my PS3 is not plugged in, yet my much smaller library of Xbox360 games is at my fingertips on my Series X.
Out of all those games, the most annoying ones are the PS2 classics I bought on PS3. Does Sony expect me to buy them again in the future, for the 3rd time? Who do they think they are, Nintendo?

@Rich33 have you played the PSP version? It has all of that, better load times, more characters and more features.

@Pally356
No, I haven't. I never owned the PSP - only the mainline and Pro consoles.

@Andee the one great thing about the ps3 was you can use any controller to play games on it, include the ps4 and ps5 controller , the only thing is the home button doesn't work on non ps3 controllers but every thing else works.

@twitchtvpat Yeah it would be nice if they could get that to work — although with the PS3 there was very little I used the home screen for (and that's actually true of PS5) outside of launching the game.