An error on a Playstation 5 might be hinting that Playstation 3 backwards compatibility is coming to the console at some point. The error, brought up by Twitter user Cor_Negron, showed that they couldn’t see their PS4 trophies, which were all marked as being for the PS3. Of course, this isn’t confirmed yet.
Sony has been very cagey on matters of backwards compatibility. While several of the Playstation 4’s best games have been allowed to be backwards compatible on the Playstation 5, games on earlier Playstation consoles have always been limited to the company’s Playstation Now service.
Various hints about backwards compatibility have been making the rounds on the internet for the past few months, particularly with a rumor that Sony is supposedly working on an equivalent to the Game Pass service that will similarly allow games from previous console generations to be played.
The trophy glitch for the Playstation 5 has apparently been rectified, so whether or not Playstation 3 backwards compatibility is coming to the console remains to be seen. Something that big will likely be something brought up at Playstation’s next event, whether it’s a Showcase, a State of Play, or even something at E3.
Playstation’s previous stance on backwards compatibility and cross-platform play does, however, put this sort of thing in doubt. The Playstation 4 didn’t have backwards compatibility, and neither does the Playstation 5 except for a select few of the PS4’s most popular games. The company has also been notably hostile to developers attempting to make their games multiplatform.
If Sony actually is making an equivalent to Game Pass that lets people play older Playstation games, hopefully they’ll reveal that information at some point soon. Either way, whether Playstation 3 backwards compatibility is actually coming to the Playstation 5 remains to be seen. Playstation could stand to make a lot of money through such a service, but considering their previous attitudes, who knows if they’ll realize that.