There is still hope: Sony is still considering adding PS3 games to PS Plus Premium, but there are nuances
PlayStation fans who have been dreaming of diving back into classic PS3 games via streaming on PS Plus Premium, hold on! When the retro-oriented subscription tier was introduced a few years ago, many took it as a chance to free up titles stuck on the old system. However, that hope never materialised: most of the PS3 library on PS Plus Premium is simply a copy of what was on PS Now before it was reorganised, and there have been very few new additions since launch. In fact, the first two Resistance titles appeared on the service and then were removed less than six months later! This leaves fans of Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots with little hope of their favourite games being rescued.
Here's What We Know
According to Sony, the company is still considering adding PS3 games that support streaming to PS Plus Premium, but this was communicated in a somewhat vague way. In a new interview with Game File, Vice President of Global Services Nick Maguire said: "We haven't ruled them out. There are opportunities. But there are already a lot of PS3 games that are available for streaming."
When it comes to third-party games, Sony must work with the publisher of any PS3 title to add them to PS Plus Premium. PlayStation has an internal emulation team that handles this process, but "sometimes the process takes a little longer" compared to PS5 and PS4 games. Sony tries to release at least one retro game on PS Plus Premium every month, and that's all it has managed consistently over the past two updates.
Regarding the removal of the Resistance games from the PS3, Maguire said it's all about balance in game selection. "We have 80 collections of games in the catalogue. So we want to keep it fresh and add new games. Sometimes that means removing a few games at a time to keep the offering interesting and help people find new games."
Source: Game File
