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RPCS3
	RPCS3 running on Windows 11
Original author(s)	DH, Hykem, AlexAltea
Developer(s)	(RPCS3 TEAM) Nekotekina, kd-11, elad335, jarveson, Megamouse, hcorion, scribam, ruipin, isJuhn, Galciv, Numan
Initial release	May 23, 2011; 13 years ago
Stable release	None
Preview release	v0.0.32-16834 Alpha / August 16, 2024; 4 months ago
Repository	github.com/rpcs3/rpcs3/
Written in	C++, GLSL and C
Operating system	Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD
Platform	x86-64, ARM64
Available in	English
Type	Video game console emulator
License	GNU General Public License version 2.0
Website	rpcs3.net

RPCS3 is a free and open-source emulator and debugger for the Sony PlayStation 3 that runs on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and macOS operating systems, allowing PlayStation 3 games and software to be played and debugged on a personal computer. It is being developed in the C++ programming language targeting x86-64 and ARM64^[a] CPUs featuring OpenGL and Vulkan as backend renderers.

As of August 2024, nearly 70% of PlayStation 3 games have been classified as "playable", meaning that a significant portion of the native library can be played from start to finish without any major problems.^[3]

Development

Despite the general idea that the complexity of the PlayStation 3's Cell architecture would prevent it from being emulated,^[4] RPCS3 released on May 23, 2011, by programmers DH and Hykem as a working emulator.^[5] The developers initially hosted the project on Google Code and eventually moved it to GitHub on August 27, 2013. The emulator was first able to successfully run simple homebrew projects in September 2011^[6] and got its first public release in June 2012 as v0.0.0.2.^[7]

On February 9, 2017, RPCS3 received its first implementation of a PPE thread scheduler, enhancing its emulation of the many-core Cell microprocessor.^[8] On February 16, 2017, RPCS3 gained the ability to install official PlayStation 3 firmware directly to its core file system.^[9] In May 2017, it was reported that the implementation of the Vulkan graphics API had shown some performance improvements approaching 400%, pushing several games into "playable" status.^[10]

In July 2022, the developers of RPCS3 implemented save states into the emulator. This feature had previously been considered infeasible due to technical limitations.^[11]

In September 2024, a build of RPCS3 native to the ARM64 CPU architecture for macOS devices with Apple silicon system-on-chip was released on GitHub.^[12]

Requirements

As of late 2024, the OS requirements are:

Windows: 10 or later.
macOS: Monterey (12.0) or later.
Linux: 5.4 or later.
FreeBSD: 13.3 or later.

Prior to this, the requirements for Mac and PC were lower at macOS 11.6 or later and Windows 7 or later, respectively. The PC must have at least 4 GB of RAM, 8 GB recommended, an x86-64 CPU and a GPU supporting one of the supported graphics APIs: OpenGL 4.3 or greater, or Vulkan, the latter being recommended. Additional support for SIMD CPU instruction sets such as AVX-2 and AVX-512 is also recommended for best performance. Apart from the game itself to be run, the emulator requires the PlayStation 3's firmware, which can be downloaded from Sony's official website.^[13]

Legal challenges

RPCS3 received significant media attention in April 2017 for its ability to emulate Persona 5, achieving playability prior to the game's Western release date.^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17] In September 2017, Persona developer Atlus issued a DMCA takedown notice against RPCS3's Patreon page. The action was motivated by the Patreon page making frequent mentions on the emulator's progress on emulating Persona 5. The demand, however, was settled by only removing all Persona 5 references from the page.^[18]^[19]