Despite North American players’ fears that PlayStation Plus Premium’s PS1 games would be the PAL versions that run at 50Hz, Video Games Chronicle confirmed that North American PS1 classics will be based on the NTSC versions that run at 60Hz.
PS1 classics were rolled out region by region, with Asian territories getting first access to the library of PS1 games in May. However, it was discovered that the PS1 games available in those regions were based on the PAL versions rather than NTSC. PAL PS1 games, which were made for the European market, run slower and look worse because they were limited to 50Hz at the time of release. North American PS1 games simply look and run better at 60Hz.
PS1 classics are one of the main selling points of the new PlayStation Plus Premium tier that launches today in North America and features a library of classic titles that are emulated on the PS4 and PS5. The launch selection consists of 13 classic titles, though that list will be updated regularly in the middle of each month. The service has yet to launch in Europe, which will get it on June 22.
This PAL issue also existed for the PlayStation Classic console that packed in 20 PS1 games on a miniaturized version of the original console, leading many to believe Sony would repeat this mistake when bringing these games to the new service. The fact that this isn’t the case with PlayStation Plus Premium in North America is certainly good news for those wanting a convenient way to play PS1 games on their modern systems. However, it still doesn’t address the overall small quantity of titles available. We hope that Sony will be able to bolster this list of classic titles quickly in the coming months, or this most expensive tier may not seem worth the cost.
