The team behind the biggest PS3 emulator is now tackling the PS4
PS4 emulation is still in its infancy right now
The developer of the biggest PS3 emulator has now turned its attention to working on one for the PS4.
As reported by emulation fan Read Only Memo, the team behind the RPCS3 PS3 emulator (which started life back in 2011) seems to be working on a PS4 emulator called RPCSX - as spotted on Github. As pointed out in the original blog post, the project appears to still be in the early stages of development, and isn't the first of its kind, with plenty of other developers also trying to create their own PS4 emulators of varying quality.
Speaking to one of the project's developers, Read Only Memo discovers that the idea for a PS4 emulator has been floating around amongst the team for a while. "I did some things just after the console's release," the developer says, however, they decided to wait until after the release of the PS5 to work on it further.
Some of the developers that worked on RPCS3 (PS3 emulator) are on board for the PS4 version too, but the emulator is currently open on Github, meaning anyone able to lend a hand is welcome to contribute to the project.
The project's developer explains some of the benefits of creating a PS4 emulator, revealing that it'll be particularly useful if your favorite game is removed from the PSN, for example, Hideo Kojima's elusive horror game P.T. According to the same post, there's no ETA for RPCSX - since developing it isn't anyone's full-time job - but when it is up and running it'll hopefully run "real PS4 games".
Considering the jump Sony took between the PS3 and the PS4, it's no surprise that this is already a pretty ambitious task for the team. It'll hopefully be worth it though when fans are able to play their favourite PS4 games on PC one day.
On the topic of PlayStation emulators, the best PS1 emulator now has better online multiplayer than most modern games.
Sign up to the 12DOVE Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at 12DOVE before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.