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It’s about time Sony showed PS3 some respect (VGC)

Those emulation hobbyists is able to build an emulator but Sony couldn't because reasons.



Building an emulator to say "yes this is a PS3 emulator" is one thing.

Building a commercial emulation software that runs every legacy game at full speed is a totally different kettle of fish.

While the hobbyist efforts are admirable, they don't achieve the technical performance bar that Sony would have to, and so it's essentially a moot point.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Building an emulator to say "yes this is a PS3 emulator" is one thing.

Building a commercial emulation software that runs every legacy game at full speed is a totally different kettle of fish.

While the hobbyist efforts are admirable, they don't achieve the technical performance bar that Sony would have to, and so it's essentially a moot point.

Yeah, I think it is a bit more of undertaking than people realize. RPCS3 is hit and miss on a lot of games. Sony can't do that. They have to vet every single game released which is exactly why Microsoft stopped at under a third of Xbox 360 games.
 

Md Ray

Member
Invest millions in a PS3 emulator or a new AAA game?

Easy a new AAA game for me.
Why Dont We Have Both GIF
 

SkylineRKR

Member
PS3 was an awful console when I think about it. 20 minute installs, and then updates, and then unpacking. Often I couldn't even quickly show a game to someone, greeted by a stupidly slow update causing me to shut the thing off. Another thing, and the 360 also suffered from this, was the absolutely woeful IQ and framerate in many games. These things shouldn't have pushed 1080p, or even 720p so hard. Though a ton of games render at sub 720p and still run like shit. So SD/ED might've been better.

Still, while easily my least favored Sony console the Ps3 did have its share of great games that are kind of lost to time and I count MGS4 as one of them.

Its not like you can play every 360 game on One X and Series too though, but at least a few of the most essential ones.
 

Sybrix

Member

He's not wrong tho.

Compared to Xbox 360, the PS3 had mediocre games, i mean i really don't understand why people want Resistance back... those games were never good, most PS3 games were horrible to play, sub 30fps. My memories of playing the PS3 is playing grey slow laggy games.

Not even going to mention that price point.....

That being said, the PS3 has some good games, Warhawk, MGS4, Gran Turismo, however it just wasn't enough to come anywhere near Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 was such an amazing console and the roster of games it had vs PS3 was superior.
 
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Mahavastu

Member
Invest millions in a PS3 emulator or a new AAA game?

Easy a new AAA game for me.
i would assume that a commercial quality PS3 emulator would be around $20 million Dollars and would allow Sony to let their users play hundreds of games locally in high quality (upscaled, good framerates, no compression artefacts, low latency and so on) on their hardware.
This would be a real reason for lots of people to subscribe the highest tier of the new PS+, which has not much going for it without PS3 emulation compared to the middle tier.

For the same amount you would get ONE little AA game no one really cares about or some minor improvements to one of their AAA games.

20 mio is pocket change for Sony, it is not an "either new game or emulator", they can do both
 
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Topher

Gold Member
He's not wrong tho.

Compared to Xbox 360, the PS3 had mediocre games, i mean i really don't understand why people want Resistance back... those games were never good, most PS3 games were horrible to play, sub 30fps. My memories of playing the PS3 is playing grey slow laggy games.

Not even going to mention that price point.....

That being said, the PS3 has some good games, Warhawk, MGS4, Gran Turismo, however it just wasn't enough to come anywhere near Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 was such an amazing console and the roster of games it had vs PS3 was superior.

He is not wrong or right. It is an opinion. For me, PS3 had awesome first party games, but many of the third party games suffered because devs couldn't get their heads wrapped around the Cell processor and it had a weak GPU. I liked both 360 and PS3, but I know I played games on PS3 long after I stopped playing on 360. But again.....opinions.
 
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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Building an emulator to say "yes this is a PS3 emulator" is one thing.

Building a commercial emulation software that runs every legacy game at full speed is a totally different kettle of fish.

While the hobbyist efforts are admirable, they don't achieve the technical performance bar that Sony would have to, and so it's essentially a moot point.

They surpassed whatever Sony has done regarding PS3 emulation here. Their emulator has already supported more than 50% of the PS3 library.

Sony also doesn't offer full library support for their PS1/PS2 classic games too.
 
Invest millions in rebranding PS Now and Plus, or simply add PS3 emulation to Now?

Easy PS3 for me.
One of those things makes more business sense for Sony. I love the PS4 dearly, but it still can’t be emulated properly. Sony’s games pushed it more than most and an emulator would likely have the most issues running their games, which isn’t a good look for it.
 
I swear to god somebody from VGC has infiltrated this forum because how many more of their articles do we need clogging shit up. I’m not clicking but I bet they love the ad revenue from the traffic from here.
What traffic? The guy keeps copying the entire articles and pasting them here word-for-word - if anything he's stealing traffic away from VGC.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
He's not wrong tho.

Compared to Xbox 360, the PS3 had mediocre games, i mean i really don't understand why people want Resistance back... those games were never good, most PS3 games were horrible to play, sub 30fps. My memories of playing the PS3 is playing grey slow laggy games.

Not even going to mention that price point.....

That being said, the PS3 has some good games, Warhawk, MGS4, Gran Turismo, however it just wasn't enough to come anywhere near Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 was such an amazing console and the roster of games it had vs PS3 was superior.
And despite that it did pull back.
It was like watching the Rock go heel and then coming back face.
Some how, some way
And like you said, it did have some games and for most.
It did come and surpassed 360 when it came to exclusives.
Multiplats is another matter.
So I think it deserves some respect for that.
It work harder then most consoles.
 

Godot25

Banned
Let's just be straight here.
Sony just don't want to spend money necessary to do this. It's just all about money.
If players in their spare time can make emulator, you really want to tell me, that Sony with source code an everything can't make emulator?

Everything about new PS plus is as cheap as possible so people would not leave PlayStation ecosystem. Sony is not willing to invest for sake of game preservation and sad thing is that players are not even demanding better. They are just happy...
 

PaintTinJr

Member
Invest millions in a PS3 emulator or a new AAA game?

Easy a new AAA game for me.
It will be a lot less than the cost of Ryan and Hulst's yearly bonus - I suspect - that they really don't deserve after the GT7 online requirement and crap like needing an active PS Plus sub to backup any PS5 game saves, which are very anti-consumer moves IMHO

Would you rather Sony gives them their bonuses or gives the industry the proper offline BC for all PlayStation disc/games it deserves?

/general point about PS BC

The problem with lying to your consumers - as PlayStation has repeatedly done since the abandonment of PS2 emulation on PS3 - is that you have to have a very good memory to not get caught in the lie.

The new PS Plus tier - placing the most desirable BC options in the top tier - shows that BC is very desirable for PlayStation consumer - contrary to what we've been lied about for years - even if it doesn't get used immediately or every day. PlayStation have only addressed the BC issue when they can remonetise it - like they did on PS3 and PS4 to resell old games digitally- which completely exposes the lie. If it was not highly desirable as a feature then why is it a differential feature for a higher PS Plus tier?

On the BC issue, PlayStation are tone deaf to what Valve worked out years ago: if homebrew/piracy provides a superior gaming experience, then your product offering is failing massively.

I still have the necessary means to play my old PlayStation discs, but for games like 3D dot game heroes, move games or classics like ISS Pro Evo 2 - that will never be available again - I don't want to play on my old PS3 pad or emulate on PC when I have a perfectly good PS5 that can and should do it all.

It is amazing how Astro Bot on PS5 is loved by most and is a real celebration of PlayStation's historical hardware and software greatness, and yet the people in charge stupidly think the way previous consumers wish to celebrate that greatness is with a tiny handpicked selection downloaded or streamed with a persistent subscription cost while their discs take up space in their houses doing nothing. From Jim's recent interview with gamesindustry.biz if that is what he thinks is the way to play old games, then I suspect in all his years at PlayStation he's not actually loved gaming at all and has probably played very few.

BC should be the lore of games IMO and provide a way for any new gamer to retrace a game to its creative origins without a need for remakes. Failing to provide that capability every generation is akin to telling a new reader that they can only access the last Harry Potter book or the last book of the Lord of the Rings, etc. I just don't get how a creative industry like gaming is controlled by people that really don't understand the value and historical importance of creativity to be actively erasing it on one hand, while stoking nostalgia for it in the other with the likes of Astro bot.
 
He's not wrong tho.

Compared to Xbox 360, the PS3 had mediocre games, i mean i really don't understand why people want Resistance back... those games were never good, most PS3 games were horrible to play, sub 30fps. My memories of playing the PS3 is playing grey slow laggy games.

Not even going to mention that price point.....

That being said, the PS3 has some good games, Warhawk, MGS4, Gran Turismo, however it just wasn't enough to come anywhere near Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 was such an amazing console and the roster of games it had vs PS3 was superior.
PS3 had mediocre games...if you only count its first 2 years. from 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4 until 2013's Gran Turismo 6 it was such a great generation.
By the end of the generation Xbox was dropping the ball while Sony was firing in all cylinders.
 

Bramble

Member
I personally couldn't care less. The PS3 games I love already got remasters and I am absolutely drowning in games on my PS5. Only half way through Forbidden West, still need to finish Sifu, wanna do GTA 5, Cyberpunk, Ghostwire and Dying Light 2 after that, not to mention all the other smaller games I have in my backlog. I can buy no games for the coming 2 years and still have new stuff to play.
 
PS3 was better than PS4.

Off the top of my head:
Arcade racers:
Wipeout HD/Fury, Motorstorm Trilogy, Modnations, LBP karting.
FPS:
Kill Zone 2 and 3, Resistance Trilogy.
Adventure Games:
Uncharted Trilogy, TLOU.
GTA4!

Yeah some moved to ps4 as remasters but it doesn't detract from PS3 having a great catalogue.

Last gen overall, sucked both on the PS4 and Xbox One. It was a barrage of remasters as neither had a clue what to release half the time! At least MS allows you to replay these old games (Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are a blast to revisit)
 
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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
And? It's not a competition. Sony never dedicated any meaningful resources to PS3 Emulation.



Yes?... And?

And since we are all fine with Sony not providing full support for PS1/PS2 etc, no reason why we won't be fine with them providing partial support for PS3 games too like the current state of PS3 emulator.
 

Three

Member

For a company that’s only beaten by Nintendo in terms of longevity in the console space, PlayStation isn’t the best at celebrating its legacy.

Sure, it can throw together an extremely well-edited and nostalgic video highlighting the glory days of the PlayStation launch and the pill-influenced mid 90s hype of WipeOut and Parappa.

However, when it comes to making those games playable, outside of the disappointing miniature PSOne, there’s a strange absence of PlayStation’s history on its modern consoles, and no generation is more conspicuous by its absence than the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 3 wasn’t a failure. Not by the end, at least. Sure, it was undoubtedly Sony‘s most challenging home console – it reportedly lost billions at launch – but by the time that generation ended, PS3 actually marginally outsold the Xbox 360, a console that’s widely regarded to have ‘won’ that particular race.

But the negative sentiment was probably a good thing for Sony in the long run. Without the PS3 and the disastrous messaging that seemed to permeate throughout that generation, it wouldn’t have made such a huge splash with the PS4, laying the banana skin for Microsoft to make its own mess with the Xbox One.

As one exec involved in the consoles remarked: “The PlayStation that emerged at the end of PS3 was a much more gritty, determined, focused entity than the much more hubristic organisation at the beginning of the PS3 era.”

By the PS4 era, Sony was doing its best to make you never have to touch your PS3 again, namely by porting all of the big games from the system to the PS4 in flash new remasters. No longer would users have to dig out something the size of a George Forman grill to play the Uncharted series or The Last of Us.

Sony seemed burned by it. While, again, it wasn’t a disaster, it’s the first console, and only so far that hasn’t been a giant success. It’s the only PlayStation home console (not counting the PS5) not to break 100 million sales. It’s still the 8th best selling console of all time, but even that wasn’t enough for Sony, which very swiftly moved on.

At launch, neither the PS4 nor the Xbox One supported backwards compatibility. But eventually, in its fight to regain some of the ground lost in 2013, Microsoft invested millions into creating an Xbox 360 emulator that could work in the Xbox One’s software, opening the door to hundreds of classic titles.

Many expected Sony to follow suit. But then… nothing. While a few PS2 titles were ported to PS4 and PS Now had a modest suite of streamed PS3 games, no proper backwards compatibility function was added to the system.

That’s why when patents emerged implying that the PS5 could support backwards compatibility across all generations of PlayStation, people were excited. But this wasn’t present at launch.

Now, the new PlayStation Plus has been announced. When the service launches, players will be able to download PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games as part of its expanded offering. However, those looking to play PS3 games will have to settle for streaming them. Just like PlayStation Now.

That’s very disappointing.

While this hasn’t been stated publicly, the consensus is that due to the unique architecture of the PS3 and its infamous cell processor, emulating the system within the PS5 in software, (in the same way that the Xbox Series X emulates an Xbox 360), would be incredibly difficult.

However, fans aren’t convinced. YouTuber and developer at Night Dive Studios ModernVintageGamer tweeted in the wake of the announcement that emulating the PS3 on the PS5 was “absolutely possible” but that “Sony has never been interested in investing the millions to make it happen”.

Sadly, his second point is probably the real answer. Ultimately, Sony is a business, and outside of the hearts and minds of players and the preservationist community, what does it get from allowing you to download PS3 games onto a PS5?


It would argue that you can still play the games, and even though the library isn’t complete, or anywhere close, neither of the modern consoles offers full backwards compatibility anyway. There’s a romantic idea that one day you’d wake up and put every PS3 disc you own into your shiny new console, but it’s not one that’s realistic. There’s also the licensing factor which absolutely cripples certain genres of games, like sports, wrestling or driving, due to the expiration of contracts and server closures.

However, there are some series that Sony has completely marooned on the PlayStation 3. The inFamous series, PlayStation’s superhero series before they had Spider-Man, is only playable on the PlayStation 3. Despite the series getting a PS4 entry early in the console’s life cycle, and an almost yearly rumour of a collection, the three games, inFamous, inFamous 2 and inFamous: Festival of Blood, can only be played on modern consoles via PlayStation Now.

The same is true of the Killzone series. And the Resistance series. These franchises that Sony built its first-party empire on are forgotten, while only Naughty Dog’s Uncharted and The Last of Us seem to remain in the zeitgeist. Both inFamous developer Sucker Punch and Killzone developer Guerrilla have moved on to new franchises, Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon respectively, but it’s a shame that there’s no way to play these games in a modern setting outside of a streaming solution that is far from ideal.

That’s another factor in all of this. If the streaming solution was good, I don’t think as many people would be disappointed by this announcement. Not only is the steaming of PS3 games not available in every region, even in regions with fast internet, and on the best consumer internet you can currently get in the UK, PS Now is a latent, blurry and frankly, ugly way to play them.

The input delay is horrible and the image is muddy and constantly tears. I understand that in most cases it’s a 720p image, further compressed by streaming, but when blown up on any modern TV, it just looks bad.

Sony’s attitude towards the PS3 era looks clear: ‘If we didn’t bring it to PS4, it doesn’t matter’, which, considering this new £100 a year service is going to be targetted to the hardest of the hardcore Sony fan, feels like a mistake. We’re yet to see how the PS1 and PS2 are handled, but considering the games from those consoles will be downloadable, it’s likely the games will at least feel better to play, eliminating the streaming lag.

It’s truly a shame to see how PlayStation continues to treat its third generation. Much of what’s so good about the platform now, namely its focus on big, shiny first-party experiences was birthed from the PS3. The excuses about how technically challenging it might be to get PS3 games running natively on the PS5 hold less and less water as more emulators emerge in the PC scene, running on hardware far below that of a PlayStation 5.

But for now, this is how the legacy of the PS3 lives on. Instead of focussing on the great things it did and the franchises it started, it’s remembered as a hard to develop for system that has architecture so awkward that Sony would rather leave it in the past. But for many, especially for those for whom the PS3 was their first gaming generation, it’s a disappointing erasure of an important era in gaming.

Do you have some kind of contract with VGC? You seem to always post their articles here.
 

ethomaz

Banned
I dunno man. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you the same guy who went out of his way to justify the ridiculous in-game purchase launch pricetags in GT7?
I do prefer if a game have MTX it is very expensive… games should not have MTX at all.
And I prefer money being expend in new games instead old things.
Have any problem with that?
 
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ethomaz

Banned
Event he Steam Deck can run RPCS3.

You can't tell me with a straight face the PS5 wouldn't be able to with some guidance from Sony.



Neither the best hardware in PC today can make that emulator run most of the games.
And we are just saying run.
Don’t expect solid performance… it is a hit or mis if you can play a game without encounter issues.
 
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kraspkibble

Permabanned.
the time to respect PS3 was 2013.

there was no reason to NOT include PS3 emulation with PS5 but again sony decided not to bother. cell was difficult to emulate but not anymore. sony don't care. they'd rather do a low effort remaster/remake and get $70 off you.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Neither the best hardware in PC today can make that emulator run most of the games.
And we are just saying run.
Don’t expect solid performance.


Yeah that's exactly what so many people are saying in this thread.

If hobbyist authors can get emulators working on a Steam Deck, Sony engineers shouldn't face that many problems getting it running on native PS5 hardware.

It's not a matter of if they CAN get it to run, it's a matter of if they want to invest a little bit of time and money into it.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Maybe they don't want to open themselves for possible points of entry regarding piracy.

Would I t be great to have a PS Museum app where you could brows all games released and buy/download them?
Yes it would be.
Would Sony make more money with MTX in GT7 with gold plated Wheels than all of the PS3 library? Very possible.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
One thing I love about my xbox is that i can access my digital xbox 360 games from 12-15 years ago. The ps3 has an awesome library, and i refuse to believe that its too expensive or impossible to get a ps3 emulator up and running on the ps5. Its a bad look compared to microsoft, full stop. That being said, hopefully the ps1 and 2 libraries end up being robust enough to make up the difference
 
PS3 was better than PS4.

Off the top of my head:
Arcade racers:
Wipeout HD/Fury, Motorstorm Trilogy, Modnations, LBP karting.
FPS:
Kill Zone 2 and 3, Resistance Trilogy.
Adventure Games:
Uncharted Trilogy, TLOU.
GTA4!

Yeah some moved to ps4 as remasters but it doesn't detract from PS3 having a great catalogue.

Last gen overall, sucked both on the PS4 and Xbox One. It was a barrage of remasters as neither had a clue what to release half the time! At least MS allows you to replay these old games (Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are a blast to revisit)
This guy knows what's up. Most gamers seem to have this weirdly short term memory or awkward association about the 7th generation. With the way things are going, that generation's offerings only continue to look better in hindsight.

The generation has some good and unique games (hidden gems™) that I'd bet went completely untouched by most, got written off, or most fail to remember (not asking for a "Remember me" pun here).
 
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ethomaz

Banned
Yeah that's exactly what so many people are saying in this thread.

If hobbyist authors can get emulators working on a Steam Deck, Sony engineers shouldn't face that many problems getting it running on native PS5 hardware.

It's not a matter of if they CAN get it to run, it's a matter of if they want to invest a little bit of time and money into it.
I understand that reverse engineering is hard to be done but it is not a hobbyist project… the 2 main developers dedicate full time to the project as real Job… they are paid for that.

Since 2011 and the emulator can’t run well most of games… the playable state is only that you can begin and end the game but not about running it like original PS3 at least even on the strongest hardware in PC.

That is how difficult to developer a PS3 emulator… there is a reason why the emulator last version is called 0.23Alpha.
 
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Belthazar

Member
Well, I guess the people who are interested in played the few PS3 games that were never ported probably still have a PS3 lying around. It would probably be a feature most people would turn on once say "neat, a blast from the past!!!" And then proceed to just play the new call of duty or whatever
 

Loxus

Member
Neither the best hardware in PC today can make that emulator run most of the games.
And we are just saying run.
Don’t expect solid performance… it is a hit or mis if you can play a game without encounter issues.
I agree with you.
Running a few games with unknown performance doesn't say much.

The guy only shows a few games running, what about performance the other 98% of games?

Running nearly all games at solid performance without issues is what Sony would be aiming for. We see Sony talk about this with PS4 BC on PS4Pro & PS5.

For all we know, Sony may have already tested PS3 BC on PS5 and saw a vast majority of games running but not working well or unplayable.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
The minority probably have a ps3 slim sitting around somewhere with 100 games.
Hey, that's me. The super small and silent SS.

I only ever used it to Plat Demon's Souls in 2018 when my OG Phat boy was sounding like a hair dryer (was already reflowed once).

Have not touched it since no matter how many times I tell myself I will, lol.
 

Nautilus

Banned
The 360 won the 7th gen? For fucks sake, it was the Wii that won...

Its extremely infuriating how a few people like to disregard Nintendo just because it cant beat them.
 

Romulus

Member
Easily the last console I would want to revisit. I ended up enjoying multiplatforms the most that generation and the ps3 versions were typically the worst. Even then, waiting all those years for devs to finally push exclusives on the machine felt underwhelming when it finally arrived and ps3 games have aged like milk even compared to the previous generation. I love all the other PS consoles, but the ps3 was a flaming pile of shit.
 
PS3 was better than PS4.

Off the top of my head:
Arcade racers:
Wipeout HD/Fury, Motorstorm Trilogy, Modnations, LBP karting.
FPS:
Kill Zone 2 and 3, Resistance Trilogy.
Adventure Games:
Uncharted Trilogy, TLOU.
GTA4!

Yeah some moved to ps4 as remasters but it doesn't detract from PS3 having a great catalogue.

Last gen overall, sucked both on the PS4 and Xbox One. It was a barrage of remasters as neither had a clue what to release half the time! At least MS allows you to replay these old games (Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are a blast to revisit)
You're forgetting about experiences like PS Home, the LittleBigPlanet games, hell even the Buzz! games were huge here in europe.

I wouldn't call it better...but it was more varied at least.
 
And since we are all fine with Sony not providing full support for PS1/PS2 etc, no reason why we won't be fine with them providing partial support for PS3 games too like the current state of PS3 emulator.

Well, ok. That's a fair consideration.

But I doubt that in practice, people like the creators of threads like this will be satisfied with a PS3 emulator that only provides support for a handful of titles.
 

AndrewRyan

Member
PS3 had mediocre games...if you only count its first 2 years. from 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4 until 2013's Gran Turismo 6 it was such a great generation.
By the end of the generation Xbox was dropping the ball while Sony was firing in all cylinders.
That's why full BC on the 60Gb PS3 was so important. The first year of owning the PS3 I mostly played Fight Night R3 and finished out my PS2 backlog - everything upscaled to 1080 with anti-alias smoothing, wireless controllers and no memory cards. The ps3 is the best ps2! Then Warhawk was released...
 

skit_data

Member
I personally think they just wanna forget that gen ever happened, which I can respect to some extent. They fucked up pretty badly in several aspects.
I say that as someone who made a return to Playstation via PS3 after taking A good long break when I mainly played PC.

PS4 was a return to form and most of the great games from that era that I have great memories of have gotten remakes/remasters outside of Dead Space that is getting a remake as we speak.
 
That's why full BC on the 60Gb PS3 was so important. The first year of owning the PS3 I mostly played Fight Night R3 and finished out my PS2 backlog - everything upscaled to 1080 with anti-alias smoothing, wireless controllers and no memory cards. The ps3 is the best ps2! Then Warhawk was released...
honestly buying a 60gb PS3 is still on my plans...but i have a feeling it's a huge risk to do so in 2022...
 

Leonidas

Member
Lack of PS3 native support sucks as it would have been nice to see improvements in some of those games. Luckily I still have a working PS3 in pristine condition for whenever I want to play those titles. I still use the PS3 on occasion.

Recently picked up a PS5 (only bought because Sony Direct e-mail made it easy) and haven't opened it yet, I might have opened it if native PS3 compatibility arrived...
 
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