Japanese PlayStation Plus PS1 Games Are NTSC Versions With Better Performance, New Report Confirms

The PlayStation 1 classic games released in Japan as part of the new PlayStation Plus are the NTSC version, and thus run much better than the PAL versions that have been released for the service in other Asian territories.

As reported on Twitter by @the_marmolade, the version of Ape Escape that is available in Japan is the NTSC, which runs at 60hz, as opposed to the 50hz of the PAL version released in other Asian territories.

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I’m happy to confirm that Japanese version of Ape Escape PS1 on PlayStation Classics for PS5/PS4 are indeed running the NTSC version meaning no 50hz or game performance problems compare to the other regions offerings 🙌🙌🙌 pic.twitter.com/BPx4iuyTzx

— The_Marmolade (@the_marmolade) June 1, 2022

While this may seem to bode well for North America on the surface, the fact that Sony released NTSC versions of its classic games for the new PlayStation Plus service in Japan doesn’t mean that the same will happen in the regions, as this was pretty much a forced choice due to the Japanese language option being unavailable in North American and European versions.

The new PlayStation Plus launched last month in Asian territories, and it has been a disappointing launch, to say the least, due to the performance issues that plague many of the classic games. Additional features have been added, to be sure, but performance issues for games that have been released decades ago are unacceptable.

The new PlayStation Plus service has been launched in Japan and other Asian territories, and it will launch in North and South America on June 13th and on June 22nd in Europe. More information on the new service can be found on the Official PlayStation Blog.