Do PS3's have any use now?

[VoodooRufus]

I have a couple old PS3s that I used to use for their BluRay capabilities. One phat backwards compatible one and one slim. Never really got into gaming on them. I have The Force Unleashed but since the PC version had better graphics I never bothered to get through it.

Do they have any uses now aside from a retro gaming console?

 

[auntjemima]

The kids used one for Netflix until we got them a used Xbox one. Seemed to still do the trick. Then I jailbroke it and gave it to the neighbours kid to play Minecraft and emulators.

Good little emulator.

 

[scojer]

my fat one died about 6 months ago and I went on a hunt for a replacement, wound up getting a ps2 and a slim 3, I use mine to play older games still.

If you don't game though, they can keep a small room warm.

 

[T4rd]

My daughter still played Little Big Planet 2 & 3 with her friends until they shut down the servers earlier this year I think it was. It was a dumb reason why they shut down too; some kid "hacked" the game and pushed no-no words to everyone in the game announcements or something and Sony shut them down for months saying they're patching the servers and then finally announced they're not bringing them back up despite running on the same servers as the PS4 version.

I felt inspired by Digital Foundry's recent series of DF Retro recapping the most hi-res PS3 games though. The couple games I didn't have already though had PS4 versions so I just got them on there instead, lol

 

[Comixbooks]

Borderlands 1 looks good on it with Boneyard Junction.

 

[VoodooRufus]

Good video on the levels of HD in the games. Force Unleased was done at 1280x720p apparently. Surprised that GT5 wasn't full HD either given it was a star title for the PS consoles.

 

[Armenius]

There is no PS3 backward compatibility on PS4 or PS5, so the only way to play PS3 games that were never updated for the newer consoles is on a PS3. Emulation is nowhere near a replacement at this time, though RPCS3 does run a few games well enough.

Good video on the levels of HD in the games. Force Unleased was done at 1280x720p apparently. Surprised that GT5 wasn't full HD either given it was a star title for the PS consoles.

Most gen 7 games ran at "half HD" or worse. Very few games on either system were able to be rendered at full HD.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

I am semi-confused by the question. The point of a PS3 (other than a media content machine as you note) is to play PS3 games. It has the utility of being able to play those games.

It's pretty apparent that a "new" PS3 game hasn't come out in some time. Does that make it a retro gaming console? I think this question is really more about semantics than anything else. If you want to play the most popular games of the last 5 years then the PS3 ain't gonna do that for ya. So if that's "retro" then yeah it's "retro".

Does being able to play PS3 games have utility? That's up to you.

 

[Armenius]

"Vintage" is the correct term. "Retro" is something new that apes something old. It really bothers me when people use the latter to describe an old game or console.

 

[VoodooRufus]

Funny. I called a PS3 a retro machine, yet I call my old Socket A rig a vintage gaming PC. Can't win apparently.

PS3s are still good for playing Blu Rays, too. I haven't checked to see how many streaming apps are still available.

 

[chameleoneel]

I like to use mine for Blu-ray, because I don't have to look at the controller, to control a movie.

 

[Choopyplz]

There are a bunch of PS3 games that haven't been ported to newer consoles, so it'd be good for that. You could also jailbreak one. Technically they play blu-ray movie discs but the drives in them are kind of slow.

I still have a slim -- still really like it. I played the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection not too long ago on it. My girlfriend is currently using it to play Red Dead Redemption, haha.

 

[TheSlySyl]

Their use would be to play a couple PS3 exclusive titles that never got ported/never got upgraded to newer hardware. Or to play games better/cheaper (if you already own them) than how the PS5 streams retro games.

However if you don't have access or care about those particular PS3 exclusive titles, it's basically it's a really big and kinda neat looking piece of hardware to have on your shelf.

Personal opinion: I've had two PS3s die on me. One of them the blu-ray drive stopped reading disks and then its replacement just started crashing so fucking bad that eventually it never booted up again. I've never had any other console become completely inoperable, (I'm still rocking my original SNES and even disc based consoles like PS1 and Gamecube) so the PS3 is a bit of a sore spot as the lone console that I own that simply doesn't fucking work anymore. If you have one that still works, enjoy it? I guess?

Honestly, most worthwhile PS3 games have been ported to other consoles by now, the only real ones that I personally am amazed haven't been remade/remastered are Tales of Xillia (1+2) and 3D Dot Heroes. I imagine that Tales of Xillia will be remastered eventually though, pretty much every other Tales release ever has been.

Also there's a couple rare PS2 games (mostly JRPGS) that are much, much, much, much cheaper to get through PS3 than finding PS2 copies. Stuff like Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (1+2) SMT: Devil Summoner: (1+2) Megaman Legends (1+2) Katamari Forever, etc.

(It's literally cheaper to buy a whole damn PS3, go through the obtuse effort of putting money onto your sony account through a secondary interface and buying SMT: Devil Summoner 1&2 for like $20 each than it to to buy a *single, used* retail PS2 copy of either title )

 

[Comixbooks]

You can play Dante's Inferno on it while you can't on PS5.

 

[Armenius]

You can play Dante's Inferno on it while you can't on PS5.

It's backward compatible on Xbox One and Series X|S. You can buy it on the Microsoft store as a digital download.

 

[ZodaEX]

It's good if you're tired of the crappy battery life of the Switch Joycon and PS5 controllers.

 

[vegeta535]

It's good if you're tired of the crappy battery life of the Switch Joycon and PS5 controllers.

But then you are using a crappy Xbox controller.

 

[gvx64]

Personal opinion: I've had two PS3s die on me. One of them the blu-ray drive stopped reading disks and then its replacement just started crashing so fucking bad that eventually it never booted up again. I've never had any other console become completely inoperable, (I'm still rocking my original SNES and even disc based consoles like PS1 and Gamecube) so the PS3 is a bit of a sore spot as the lone console that I own that simply doesn't fucking work anymore. If you have one that still works, enjoy it? I guess?

Yeah, I have had similar experiences. My primary gaming machine is my N64 that my parents gave me in Christmas 1996. It's been played for thousands of hours, been through like 7 moves and it still works as well as it did the day I got it. The Wii U I bought 7 years ago is a piece of junk that I am afraid to turn on because I have had it lock up numerous times and almost brick on me. Video game hardware is just not built the way it used to be and the high complexity results in reduced stability in the long term.

Consoles from this era have been largely cannabilized by their successors, and what hasn't been re-released has gotten neutered with the loss of online support. There is really no point in buying a Wii U either since the AAA titles have almost all been put out on the Switch in the form of some lazy re-release by Nintendo and those that haven't now have limited functionality without online support. I think history will show that retro gaming interest will taper out after the Gamecube/PS2 era for these reasons.