The primary roadblock to proper, official PS3 emulation could be that, well, the console was built differently. IGN has also reached out to PlayStation for comment on the lack of PS3 downloads for PlayStation Plus, but did not hear back by the time of publishing. Following the lack of PS3 backward compatibility on the PS4, the announcement once more raised the question: Why won’t Sony emulate its 2006 console, which has a fantastic library of games, and could there be technical issues preventing them from doing so? To find out, I spoke to the developers of fan-made PS3 emulators to understand why the unique construction of the PS3 hardware continues to haunt PlayStation. This disparity is disappointing, particularly for fans with poor internet speeds that cannot reliably stream games.

Most of those libraries will be directly downloadable, but there is a major outlier: PlayStation 3 games will only be available to stream, as has been the case on PlayStation Now. As the PS5 is only backward compatible with the PS4, these new plans are the only way for players to access PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games on their latest PlayStation systems. 'This is by no means a slam dunk argument,' said Bambauer, 'But it's by no means a silly one.' After all, Nintendo could argue that by emulating the game on your phone, instead of buying their official port of a game, they're losing money.Sony’s major upcoming update to PlayStation Plus consolidates its existing services into three tiers, the two most expensive of which offer players hundreds of games from PlayStation’s current and back catalog. And Bambauer is quick to admit it's not a perfect one. Now, this isn't black and white just a potential legal argument. 'The argument would be there's no market harm here that it's not substituting for a purchase.' 'You're not giving the game to anybody else, you're just playing a game you already own on your phone,' said Bambauer. He says he could imagine a few possible defensible scenarios. 'If I own a copy of Super Mario World, I can play it whenever I want,' he notes, 'but what I'd really like to do is play it on my phone or my laptop.' In this case, downloading a ROM could be legally defensible. 'Fair use is a fuzzy standard, not a rule,' Bambauer explained. Then, according to Bambauer, you might be covered by fair use.

But is there a legal defense? Possibly, if you already own a Super Mario World cartridge.

How to emulate ps3 games