PS5 Emulator Makes PS3 Discs Backwards Compatible

Modder Shows PS3 Discs Running On PS5 Hours After Doing The Same For PS2 Games Published Oct 12, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. A modder showcased how they’ve managed to get PS2 discs running on a newly jailbroken PS5 through the use of an emulator. When asked if they might be able to do the same for PS3 games, they replied yes. I’m not sure anyone was expecting the evidence of that to be shared mere hours after they were done demonstrating their work with PS2 games. Physical PS3 Games Running On PS5 PlayStation The modder, who goes by Sword, shared a first look at their PS5SX2 emulator in action on Friday. The emulator is a port of the PCSX2 emulator that can be installed on a jailbroken PS5. All you need to do is insert a PS2 game, and the emulator will copy it to the console’s internal storage. Not only is that exactly how Xbox’s official backward compatibility feature handles things, but it also means there’s no risk of the game running more slowly than it might on original hardware. Quite the contrary, as the emulator includes various features that let you enhance things like resolution, making your old games look better than ever. Just two days later, Sword has returned, having already achieved the same feat for PS3 games. Much like the process used for PS2, Sword has ported the RPCS3 emulator that allows you to play PS3 discs on PC to PS5, renaming it the RPS5S3 on the console. The clip shows them inserting the disc for Gran Turismo 5, a game that was only ever released on PS3, into their PS5. A few seconds later, a new tile appears to the left of the one for the RPS5S3 emulator for an “unsupported disc”. Sword goes ahead and clicks the tile anyway, and a few seconds later, GT5 starts up, just as it would on a PS3, complete with the PS3 logo appearing as the game boots up. So, Has The PS5 Been Secretly Capable Of Backwards Compatibility This Whole Time? Sword answered some questions from naturally fascinated PS5 owners, including those who own digital-only versions of the latest PlayStation console feeling particularly burned by the revelation that the PS5 is a lot more backwards compatible than Sony has been letting on. The good news for those PS5 owners is that this process also works with external disc drives. It has been noted by the modder making this happen, and now their work proves it, that the components required to identify discs in the PS5 were built with the ability to read discs created for all five of PlayStation’s home consoles. On the one hand, that’s great news, as now that the PS5 has been jailbroken, it has allowed for projects like this to take advantage of them. The darker side of that revelation is the realization that PlayStation seemingly could have made the PS5 and PS4 backwards compatible with games dating all the way back to its inception, but it either didn’t want to, or chose not to put in that last little bit of work to try and make that a reality. Brand Sony Original Release Date November 11, 2006 Original MSRP (USD) $499.99 (20GB), $599.99 (60GB) / £425 (60GB) / ¥49,980 (20GB), ¥60,000 (60GB) Operating System CellOS Processor Cell Broadband Engine @ 3.2 GHz Resolution 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p