RPCSX becomes the first emulator to boot Bloodborne on PC

The RPCSX emulator has taken Bloodborne one step closer to playability on PC

Bloodborne is one of the PlayStation 4’s most popular exclusives, and it feels like every month there is a new rumour about a potential PlayStation 5 re-release or a new PC version of From Software’s Victorian-era action role playing game. Sadly, these rumours have always been false, much to the disappointment of gamers. 

Now it has been confirmed that the PlayStation 4 emulator, RPCSX, can boot Bloodborne on PC, making it the first PlayStation 4 emulator to achieve this feat. While the game only boots into a black screen, the fact that the emulator has gotten this far is a huge achievement for the software’s developers. 

RPCSX is a new emulator from the team behind RPCS3, the PlayStation 3 emulator. The emulator has already been show booting up games like Sonic Mania, displaying visuals and the game’s title screen. In time, RPCSX’s development should reach a stage where some PlayStation 4 games are playable, and eventually reach a stage where most PlayStation 4 titles will be playable on compatible hardware.

Wait, it’s just a black screen?

Yes, with RPCSX, in its current state, the emulator can only boot Bloodborne into a black screen. RPCSX is a new emulator, and it will take a while before it will be able to play Bloodborne on PC without bugs and with bug free visuals.

Just because RPCSX is displaying a black screen does not mean that the emulator is doing nothing. If the emulator was doing nothing it would crash or exit. When the emulator is running Bloodborne, it sees CPU and GPU usage spike, and while no visuals are shown, the emulator is clearly doing some work. 

Booting a major AAA release is a huge achievement for the RPCSX team, but it will be a long time before the emulator will be able to make the game playable.

In the future, RPCSX should be able to run games like Bloodborne on PC, hopefully with enhancements like 60 FPS gameplay and high resolution compatibility. With enough development effort, RPCSX should become a powerful tool for gamers, though it will likely be years before titles like Bloodborne will be fully playable using it. Even so, that effort has not passed a major hurdle.  

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