This emulator can now run physical PS3 games on your PC

GamingbyJessica FilbyPublished: Sep 08, 2026, 13:11SonyAdd as a preferred source on GoogleFollow on Google News

Playing your old PS3 collection on PC just became much easier, with a new emulator feature removing one of the biggest barriers between players and their physical games.

Sony released the PlayStation 3 almost 20 years ago (sorry if that makes you feel old), introducing players to iconic games like inFamous, Resistance, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the original Demon’s Souls.

However, since then, getting the chance to play your physical PS3 games has become a little tricky. Well, thanks to a new feature in the RPCS3 emulator, you don’t even need a PlayStation to dive into those classic adventures – just a PC, a disc, and a compatible disc drive.

RPCS3 lets you play physical PS3 games directly from the disc

Essentially, RPCS3 is a free, open-source PlayStation 3 emulator and debugger available for Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD that allows you to play PlayStation 3 games on your PC using the physical discs.

Sharing the update, the emulator’s developers said: “Owning your games as physical media allows you to play games released as far back as 20 years ago without relying on any servers!”

Despite RPCS3 describing the feature as “plug and play,” there are still a few requirements, though. Players will need the latest version of the emulator, official PS3 system software, a physical PS3 game, and a compatible Blu-ray drive.

Not every Blu-ray drive can read PS3 discs. According to the developers, a simple way to test a drive is to insert a game and check whether its files appear on the computer.

Of course, a reasonably powerful PC is still needed, as PS3 emulation can be demanding and performance varies between games and hardware. But if you meet all those requirements, you can dive into the huge library of working games, including Demon’s Souls, Persona 5, Skate 3, inFamous 2, and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time.