Console emulation is a tricky business. In the best case, it can take years to simulate the exact hardware and software conditions needed to run many console titles. Some consoles, such as the original Xbox, are believed to be impossible to fully emulate on PC. Fortunately, the PlayStation 3, while still challenging, seems to be at least slightly easier to replicate.
Yesterday, the developers of the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 announced that all PS3 games will now launch using the emulator. Unfortunately, not all of them run well, and it would be misleading to say that all PS3 games are now playable on PC. However, this is still an impressive accomplishment and an important milestone for the RPCS3 emulator.
Yesterday, the RPCS3 Twitter account announced that there are now zero games with a compatibility rating of “Nothing.” That means all 3,233 PS3 games will at least launch on PC using the emulator. Of that total, 2,054, or about 63.5%, are rated as “Playable” on the emulator. The remaining 36.5% are at least partially functional to some degree.
To explain further, RPCS3 has a five-tiered compatibility rating system. A rating of Nothing indicates a game will either fail to launch or crash the emulator. The next level up is Loadable, which contains games that display a black screen and nothing else after launching. Meanwhile, games rated Intro will only load the main menu. Finally, those rated Ingame, such as God of War 3, will run in the emulator but with serious issues. They’re either too unstable, have cripplingly poor performance, or suffer from game-breaking bugs.
Only the above-mentioned Playable games will be worth most people’s time, so it’s fortunate they make up a solid majority of PS3 titles. Notably, only six PS3 games have a Loadable rating, hinting it may not be too long before the team eliminates that category as well. The similarly unplayable Intro category is also relatively small, making up less than 6% of all titles. A few notable examples include White Knight Chronicles 2 in the Loadable category and Ace Combat Infinity and Battlefield 1943 in the Intro category.
Interestingly, many of the PS3’s most popular games are still in the semi-functional Ingame category. These include major blockbusters like The Last of Us, Gran Turismo 5, and the Uncharted games. Their status is likely due to those games’ complexity and performance requirements compared to the console’s many smaller titles. It’s also worth noting that most of these AAA titles are playable on at least one newer system. Therefore, the RPCS3 team may consider them less urgent of a priority.
Nevertheless, Yesterday’s announcement is the culmination of ten years of slow progress on the RPCS3 emulator. The effort and dedication alone are staggering. RPCS3 still has a long way to go before all PlayStation 3 games are fully playable. However, the project has gone impressively far already.