Many PlayStation fans have been hoping for a steady influx of PS3 games onto the PS Plus Premium streaming service, but that hasn’t happened yet. Despite the sluggish additions and some removals, Sony says it hasn’t given up on expanding the PS3 library available to subscribers.
When Sony launched the retro-focused PS Plus Premium tier, the promise of playing classic PS3 titles through streaming sparked excitement; however, most PS3 games currently available on the service are just the same ones from the old PS Now lineup, with very few new titles added since launch. Even more frustrating was the removal of the first two Resistance games less than six months after they arrived, leaving fans of classics like Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots wondering if their favorites will ever appear.
According to Nick Maguire, Sony’s vice president of global services, the company is still open to adding more PS3 games, but with some caveats. In an interview with Game File, Maguire said, “We haven’t ruled them out. The opportunities are there. But there are a lot of PS3 games already streaming.” So, it’s more of a cautious approach rather than an outright abandonment.
There’s a technical and licensing puzzle to solve here. Sony has an internal emulation team dedicated to getting these older games running on current hardware via streaming, but the process takes longer than adding PS4 or PS5 games. In addition, they need cooperation from third-party publishers to bring their titles to the platform, which can slow things down. Sony aims to add at least one retro game to PS Plus Premium every month, but that’s been the extent of their consecutive monthly additions lately.
Maguire also addressed the removal of some PS3 games, explaining that it’s about maintaining a balance. “We’ve got 80 collections of games across the catalog. So we want to keep it fresh and bring in new games. Sometimes that means taking a few games out at the same time to keep the proposition interesting and help people find new games as well.” It’s a decent point, but it feels like a weak excuse when favorite games vanish after only a few months.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Sony isn’t abandoning the idea of expanding PS3 streaming options on PS Plus Premium, but the pace is slow, and the catalog changes can frustrate fans. Will they manage to rescue more classics like Metal Gear Solid 4 or Grand Theft Auto 4? It’s hard to say, but the door isn’t closed yet.
