My PS3 will not play games, only movies.

Make sure that your firmware is updated correctly. Also make sure the games are the correct region for the unit you're playing on. You may have an incorrect region setup on the PS3. PS3 games are region locked, either being PAL or NTSC. If the PS3 is set to read PAL (by being set to a region that is PAL, like the UK, Europe, and Japan) it will not read or play an NTSC disc.

Misconfigured or corrupted firmware installations can also cause this problem. Furthermore, pirated games will not play, because they do not have the appropriate security key on the disc.

You can try testing this by creating a new profile on the PS3 and trying to play the games. If you can play them with the new profile, then there is a corruption with the old profile. If you can't play them in the new profile, then it could be the firmware.

Lastly you may have a blown drive. Most PS3 games are dual layer blu ray discs capable of storing large amounts of data. The blu ray drive in the PS3 uses a sequenced dual laser to read the game. If one of the laser emitters has blown, it won't read the game correctly. However, since it doesn't use both emitters to read blu ray movie disks or dvds they'll still play correctly.

Try using a lens cleaning disc. If that doesn't help your PS3's disc drive is probably dying. Time to call Sony support...

The Playstation 3 is a wonderful video game console, however, with heavy usage, the laser does eventually burn out. The first signs of the laser starting to burn out is that your game will start freezing during game play. Eventually the game will stop reading altogether (even though movies sometimes still work). Eventually movies will stop working and the whole laser will eventually die.

The following website sells PS3 lasers and also performs repairs:

http://store.richspsxparts.com/pl3isnotrega.html

Hey Ron,

What happens you put a ps3 disc in the drive? Does it not register at all? Does it read BLUERAY movies because if so it should read games as well.

Rylan

Some time when that happens the system configuration is wrong reset the configuration to game play on. That should let you play Movies and game.But!, make sure you remove the disk.

The laser in the dvd drive requires different strengths to read different discs. If its reading movies and not games then the laser is starting to go bad in it. You can either replace the laser if your tech save to open up the ps3 and opening up the dvd drive, or you can just get another drive to put in there. Either one you can get from Ebay fairly cheap.

Maybe the factory mixed up the disc readers, and gave yours a ps2 disc raeder

Hi there,
Most PS3 systems end up doing this due to an over heating of the laser lens. Let me explain: The laser lens in the PS3 is made to read mainly Blue Ray games. The movies need to be read faster than the game discs which causes it to work harder thus the problem arising.
Sometimes, your lucky enough for this to only be a dirty lens problem due to rental movies which are most of the time, if not always, dirty.
Have you tried a lens cleaner kit?
This is the CD-ROM with a small brush on it to clean your laser lens head.
This problem has happened to me in the past and this solved the problem.
It is a common problem for any lens reading console.
Regards,

what is wrong is when you got the blue ray set up it was probly set up diff.if it is not reading games or movies then you eye is scrached.the eye if u dont know is what reads everything

If you keep on getting this problem you will need to send it in to get it fixed, or you can actually readjust the laser from home.
To do this you can use a good repair guide.