The Playstation 3 emulator for PC, RPCS3, has received a significant update, allowing PlayStation 3 games to now be played on PC directly from original PS3 game discs.
The new feature works on Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, bringing the emulator closer to its original goal: preserving the entire PS3 game library for future generations, even in a future where PS3 consoles no longer exist.
Previously, PS3 games had to be transferred from the original game discs to the computer's hard drive, which often required tools classified as illegal in Europe, for example, that bypassed PS3 game disc copy protections. At the same time, the content of the game discs naturally consumed computer storage space, and the transfer itself took quite a lot of time. After the update, RPCS3 works on the same principle as the original PS3 console: disc in and game starts.
The process doesn't work effortlessly on every computer, as a Blu-Ray drive must, of course, be present. Additionally, PS3 games use their own disc format, which not all Blu-ray drives can read - the RPCS3 project website lists all compatible Blu-Ray drives separately that are known to work reliably with the emulator. According to the developers, this is a hardware-level limitation that developers simply cannot bypass programmatically.
According to the emulator's developers, the solution allows playing games that are almost 20 years old without reliance on external servers, as long as the user still possesses a working disc and a compatible drive. At the same time, RPCS3's compatibility is constantly being improved: a milestone was recently reached when about 75 percent of all PS3 games have been made to work with the emulator.
You can learn more about the open-source PS3 emulator and its requirements on its homepage.
Previously, PS3 games had to be transferred from the original game discs to the computer's hard drive, which often required tools classified as illegal in Europe, for example, that bypassed PS3 game disc copy protections. At the same time, the content of the game discs naturally consumed computer storage space, and the transfer itself took quite a lot of time. After the update, RPCS3 works on the same principle as the original PS3 console: disc in and game starts.
The process doesn't work effortlessly on every computer, as a Blu-Ray drive must, of course, be present. Additionally, PS3 games use their own disc format, which not all Blu-ray drives can read - the RPCS3 project website lists all compatible Blu-Ray drives separately that are known to work reliably with the emulator. According to the developers, this is a hardware-level limitation that developers simply cannot bypass programmatically.
According to the emulator's developers, the solution allows playing games that are almost 20 years old without reliance on external servers, as long as the user still possesses a working disc and a compatible drive. At the same time, RPCS3's compatibility is constantly being improved: a milestone was recently reached when about 75 percent of all PS3 games have been made to work with the emulator.
You can learn more about the open-source PS3 emulator and its requirements on its homepage.
