PS3 Emulator RPCS3 sees “Playable” game support skyrocket with recent updates
RPCS3’s list of “Playable” PS3 games has exploded in 2026
2026 has been a great year for RPCS3 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) emulation. As of today, 77.79% of all PlayStation 3 games are now classed as “Playable” on RPCS3. To be classed as “Playable”, a game needs to be playable from start to finish with playable performance and no game-breaking bugs or glitches.
At the start of this year, less than 70% of PlayStation 3 games were playable on RPCS3. That means that within less than a year, RPCS3’s list of playable games has risen by more than 10%. That’s huge progress for RPCS3. The PlayStation 3 is one of the most complex game consoles ever produced, and it’s astounding that RPCS3 has become this advanced.
Today, RPCS3 can even play game discs directly, supporting direct disc drive play on Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD.
More games are technically playable, but they demand high-end PC hardware
Technically speaking, RPCS3’s list of “Playable” games could be larger. For some games, you can achieve playability with high-end PC hardware. Specifically, users with high-end CPUs can brute-force better PS3 emulation. The RPCS3 team has chosen to keep these games in their “ingame” section, as the requirement of a high-end CPU makes these games inaccessible to most PC gamers.
With further optimisations, RPCS3’s list of “Playable” games will grow. Additionally, it is worth noting that many PS3 games can reach playable performance on RPCS3 using game patches. These games are also classed as “ingame”, as the games themselves need to be modified/patched to reach playable performance.
Games that benefit from MLAA (Morphological Anti-Aliasing) patches include God of War III, Killzone 3, Twisted Metal, and more. MLAA is extremely taxing in these games as they use the PS3’s SPUs for MLAA, not its GPU. SPU MLAA is difficult to emulate because emulating SPUs on PC CPUs is difficult. Since RPCS3 can play games at higher tha PS3 resolutions, the need for MLAA is reduced, so removal patches are a great option for gamers.
PS Move Support has greatly improved over the last month
Last month, big changes improved how RPCS3 handles PlayStation Move Emulation. A developer called Megamouse has added support for original PS Move controllers and Camera hardware, allowing many PlayStation Move games to be classed as “Playable”.
Earlier this year, RPCS3 added direct-access USB microphone support, along with video-decoding fixes that made many microphone games playable in the emulator. This also greatly reduced the number of RPCS3 games that were classed as “Intro”. In February, 101 games were classed as “Intro” on RPCS3; now only 35 games have this designation.
🎮 Major advancements in PS Move PS3 emulation!
Do you have a PS Move controller and a camera? You too can now play PS Move games on RPCS3, thanks to Megamouse!
Many PS Move games have now been classified as Playable. Only 31 PS3 games remain as Intro or Loadable on RPCS3! pic.twitter.com/LXFP7kHTjZ
— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) August 26, 2026
Support for PS3’s biggest games has greatly improved in 2026
RPCS3 has received several major emulator improvements in 2026, reducing graphical bugs that affect some of PS3’s biggest games. A recent update from kd_11 has reworked RSX blending emulation to fix several high-profile graphical issues. Below, we can see how this fixes some graphical issues in InFamous 1 and 2. This also fixes lighting in LittleBigPlanet Karting.
Recently, patches for God of War III, God of War Ascension, InFamous 1, and InFamous 2 have been released to “Disable Mesh Trimming”. This allows these games to render better when played at higher resolutions on PC. This fix is not needed when these games are played at the game’s standard (PS3) native resolution.
inFamous 1 and 2 now with fixed refracting effects on PC!
A massive rework to how the PS3 RSX's blending emulation works was carried out by RPCS3's Lead Graphics Developer kd-11.
This fixes high-profile graphical issues on several big games. Stay tuned for more news soon… 👀 pic.twitter.com/SBb143FiHS
— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) September 9, 2026
The RPCS3 team has made massive progress in 2026, and if this continues, RPCS3 will likely hit 80% playability before the end of this year. RPCS3 is getting close to preserving the entirety of the PlayStation 3’s gaming library, preserving the console’s gaming legacy. Let’s face it, Sony’s PlayStation 3 is almost 20 years old. That hardware won’t last forever. Thanks to RPCS3, the PlayStation 3’s library will outlast the console itself. For that, the gaming community will be forever thankful to the RPCS3 team.
Join the discussion on RPCS3’s game compatibility list on the OC3D Forums.
