Gears of War 3’s Prototype PS3 Build has been released online

Gears of War 3's Prototype PS3 Build has been released online

Gears of War 3’s Prototype PS3 Build has been released online

This September will mark the 10th anniversary of Gears of War 3, and to celebrate; the game has now been released on PlayStation 3. Well… kinda. 

Thanks to PixelButts, a PS3 build of Gears of War 3 has been released on Archive.org, a version of the game that can only be played on PlayStation 3 Devkits (which feature more RAM than retail PS3 consoles). Previously, this build was shown on YouTube, proving that the game was playable with relatively few bugs. 

Epic Games has confirmed that this build of Gears of War 3 is legitimate but that the build was created as an engine test, not as a planned retail product. There was never any plans to bring the Gears of War franchise to PlayStation 3, though this demo build does present an interesting “what if” scenario. 

As it stands, this PlayStation 3 build does not work on consumer-grade PlayStation 3 consoles or on today’s PlayStation 3 emulators, though in time, it may become possible to play this build on PS3 emulators like RPCS3. Sadly, this leaked build practically unusable, as PlayStation 3 dev kits are rare and expensive. 


   Originally created during an engine test, and leaked 10 years ago and remained unusable data while circulating between collectors and exchanging hands. I was the first person to get this data working 9 years later, and decided now that it’s time to release it on the 10th anniversary of this build being made (May 19 2021). To date, this is the only Epic-made data for a PS3 version of the game, as all others have been made with leaked source code.

Additionally, you can find the fixed and bootable data in the archive as well.This data as closely matches the intended disc image layout but instead boots from the HDD. To make use of this, you will need a PS3 devkit. THIS WILL NOT WORK ON NORMAL PS3 SYSTEMS, YOU NEED THE EXTRA RAM FROM A DEVKIT. RPCS3 is an option but not as of today (it will boot to the title screen though).

Right now, the best way to play Gears of War 3 is via backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X or Xbox One X consoles, both of which can play the game at 4K. 

You can join the discussion on Gears of War 3’s leaked PlayStation 3 build on the OC3D Forums.Â