A tech YouTuber has conducted a test to prove that PS5 can emulate PS3 games, and has disputed widespread claims that PS3 emulation is a near impossible endeavor due to architectural and hardware challenges. PS3’s cell architecture has long been blamed for Sony’s inability to bring the console’s games natively to modern consoles, but YouTuber Lowest Logan has cast doubt over that.
Rumor has it that Sony will bring ‘select’ PS3 games natively to PS5
As spotted by IGN, Lowest Logan revealed that he used AMD BC-25 mining card with PS5 silicon to emulate PS3 games. He did run into some technical hiccups, but managed to play Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and LittleBigPlanet 3 via RPCS3 emulator with no issues.
There’s a lot of technical jargon in the video but you can see both games in action below:
Currently, the only way to play PS3 games without old hardware is via a PS Plus Premium membership in regions where streaming is supported. However, a rumor from earlier this year has it that Sony is working on bringing “select” PS3 games to PS5 natively.
Folks over at Digital Foundry reckon that some games, like Killzone 2, will be almost impossible to emulate without a plethora of technical issues because PS3 cell processor’s SPUs don’t work well with modern x86 processors.
Time will tell if we’ll ever see PS3 games natively on modern consoles.