PS3 Games PS Plus

When the retro-focused PS Plus Premium tier was unveiled a few years ago, many PlayStation fans saw it as a chance for some of the PS3 titles stranded on the system to be freed from their shackles — albeit through streaming.

That hope hasn't turned into reality, as much of the PS3 library on PS Plus Premium is a copy of what was on PS Now before it, and there have been very few additions since launch. In fact, the first two Resistance instalments came to the service and were then removed less than six months later. It leaves fans of Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots with little hope that their favourites will ever be rescued.

Well, according to Sony at least, it's still looking at adding streamable PS3 titles to PS Plus Premium, but it has been communicated in a sort of back-handed manner. In a new interview with Game File, vice president of global services Nick Maguire said: "We haven't ruled them out. The opportunities are there. But there are a lot of PS3 games already streaming."

When it comes to third-party games, Sony does need to work with the publisher of any PS3 title to bring them to PS Plus Premium. An internal emulation team is set up within PlayStation to handle the process, but there is "a slightly longer lead time sometimes" attached to these processes compared to PS5, PS4 games. Sony tries to release a minimum of one retro game onto PS Plus Premium each month, which is all it's been able to manage consecutively for the past two updates.

On the topic of its Resistance PS3 title removals, Maguire said it's all about balance in terms of game selection. "We've got 80 collections of games across the catalog. So we want to keep it fresh and bring in new games. Sometimes that means taking a few games out at the same time to keep the proposition interesting and help people find new games as well."

That's hardly a convincing argument, is it?

[source gamefile.news]