Can I Play PS3 Games on My New PS4?
One of the most common questions we’re asked is whether the PS4 is backwards compatible. Can I play my old PS3 games on my PS4? Is how it is usually worded – and then there’s whether you can play even older PlayStation and PS2 games on it too.
The answer is not a happy one. You cannot simply put a PS3 or PS3 game in your PS4 and play it. The systems are fundamentally not compatible with each other.
PlayStation Now
However, there is a solution. It’s called PlayStation Now, and it will let you stream older games to your PS4 over your home internet connection.
You cannot use PlayStation now yet, though. It is currently in Beta, and has only been confirmed for launch in the US, not the UK.
It’s a limited US beta too – the service is yet to get a proper roll-out anywhere. It seems highly likely it will come to the UK, but we will have to wait a while longer. The full US launch is expected in mid-2014, so 2015 seems the earliest we'll get it.
Pricing for PlayStation Now is as yet a mystery too, although the beta suggests you’ll be able to rent games for a day, a week or 30 days. We had hoped to see Now become part of the PlayStation Plus incentive package, but it is still perfectly possible that Sony will make a bunch of titles free to access each month for PlayStation Plus subscribers, much as it currently does with digital downloads of PS3 games.
Will all the PS3 games be available? No, and Sony is likely to stage a relatively conservative branching-out of the service before incorporating a massive library.
You can expect a pretty healthy crop from day one, though. The beta currently stocks 20 virtual games:
- Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear
- LUMINES: Supernova
- NIGHTS Into Dreams
- Retro/Grade
- Sacred Citadel
- Saints Row: The Third
- Skullgirls Encore
- Sniper Elite V2
- Puppeteer
- Eat Them!
- PixelJump Racers 2nd Lap
- PixelJunk Shooter 2
- BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
- Ben 10 Omniverse 2
- Contrast
- Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness
- Catherine
- El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
- FUEL
- GRID
As you can see, PlayStation Now isn’t just about AAA games – it should end up being a portal where you can check out some of the PS3’s odder old titles. It is likely any re-releases will be left out of PlayStation Now for quite some time, though.
For example, The Last of Us is being re-mastered for PS4, and its inclusion in PlayStation Now in the short-to-medium term could hurt sales of that ‘new’ release. Of course, we still don’t know when the service will actually launch. It could turn up well after the new The Last of Us edition.
Why can’t the PS4 play PS3 games?
The PS3 and PS4 use completely different system architectures, which means the PS4 would need to emulate the PS3’s system in order to make the games work. The figure often quoted is that a system needs ten times the power of the thing it’s emulating in order to do so at full speed.
Sony does claim that the PS4 meets this ‘ten times’ more powerful mark, but producing a workable emulator also requires a whole lot of work when working with a system of the PS3’s complexity. And that means a healthy cash investment, too.
Sony decided not to do this, and it’s sure to be one of the most common complaints about the new console. We can imagine many people simply assuming they’ll be able to play their old PS3 games on the thing.
What about PS1 and PS2 games?
There is some good news, though. Sony is reportedly working on native emulation for PS1 and PS2 games in the PS4. This means you won’t need to use PlayStation Now to play your very old games, and will be able to simply put the disc in your PS4.
This rumour comes from Ashan Rasheed, an ‘industry insider’. However, it is certainly nothing more than a rumour at this point.
Rasheed says that the PS4 will be able to run older games at 1080p resolution too, rather than the much lower native resolutions of the older consoles – most PS1 games are designed to run at 240 x 320 resolution. This won’t mean 20-year-old will suddenly look fresh, but it will reduce the ‘jagginess’ in polygons in these older games.
We’ll be back with more news on PlayStation Now in the UK and the PS4’s PS2 emulator soon.
Next, read our Xbox One vs PS4 comparison