PS3 games are now available on the PS5 shop

PlayStation 3 games have begun to surface in the PlayStation 5's shop, indicating that Sony may be planning to expand the console's backwards compatibility.

When looking at a PS3 game in the PS5 shop, the listing should direct you to the PlayStation Now version of the game, yet Dead Or Alive 5 has a price of £7.99.

Similar listings for PS3's Bejeweled and Prince of Persia games The Forgotten Sands and The Two Thrones, each with their unique purchasing pricing, have been noticed by other users on social media.

Users were unable to purchase a PS3 game through the PS5 shop at the time of publication. It's possible that the listings are incorrect, but Dead Or Alive 5 on the PS3 isn't available on PlayStation Now in Europe.

The listings arise as a result of the discovery of a patent titled "backward compatibility through the use of spoof clock and fine grain frequency control" filed by PS5 system architect Mark Cerny.

Many people have assumed that Sony has finally developed a solution for older games and that backwards compatibility support for the PS5 will be expanded soon.

It also comes after a Bloomberg storey from December claiming that PlayStation is working on an Xbox Game Pass competitor service.

The new service, dubbed 'Spartacus,' will integrate the current PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services, phasing away the latter's branding, according to documents reviewed by the outlet. It'll be available on PS4 and PS5 in the spring, and it'll be divided into three payment tiers.

According to reports, the first tier will include existing PlayStation Plus features such as online play and free monthly titles. The second would be comparable to Microsoft's Game Pass service in that it would offer a vast selection of titles. Extended demos, game streaming, and a library of vintage PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games would be included in the third tier.

Sony has stated numerous times that the Game Pass release model would not work for PlayStation, raising scepticism on the prospect of it adopting a similar day-one subscription release strategy to its competition.

Last September, SIE CEO Jim Ryan told GI.biz that a subscription-based model would be untenable for PlayStation Studios because its first-party game budgets regularly exceed $100 million.

While it has been suggested that Xbox Game Pass has yet to attract enough customers to be profitable, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer stated in October that the company has no intentions to raise the service's pricing.

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