You can now play PlayStation games on PC
If you still have a stack of old PS3 discs gathering dust in your closet, I have great news for you. Thanks to a cool new update from the team behind the RPCS3 emulator , you can now play PlayStation games on PC using your own physical game discs. This is a huge step forward for anyone who wants to play their favorite old games without needing the original console.
PS3 GAME DISCS CAN NOW BE PLAYED ON A PC
You can now play your PS3 games on PC... DIRECTLY FROM THE DISC DRIVE!
— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) September 6, 2026
💿 PLUG AND PLAY! Owning your games as physical media allows you to play games released as far back as 20 years ago without relying on any servers!
See compatible disc drive models at https://t.co/nSzG5S954L pic.twitter.com/d1uKE7Bpyr
For a long time, playing PS3 games on a computer meant having to deal with digital files. But now, the emulator allows you to use a standard Blu-ray drive to read the physical discs. Two developers named Megamouse and digant73 made this possible. They even used a game called Drakengard 3 to prove that it works flawlessly.
This update isn’t just for Windows users, either. Even if you use macOS, Linux, or FreeBSD, you can join in. This is a truly major step forward for game preservation. Even if your old console breaks, your physical collection no longer has to be lost.
What You Need to Get Started
You can’t just use any old computer for this. The team recommends at least a six-core CPU and a decent graphics card that’s compatible with Vulkan 1.2. You’ll also need a Blu-ray drive. They’ve tested drives from brands like LG and Asus, and those seem to work well.
The emulator keeps getting better. As of July 2026, it can run about 75% of the entire PS3 game library. Since over 2,300 games were released for the console, that means you can currently play about 1,700 games. That’s a whole lot of gaming fun.
Why this matters right now
This news couldn’t have come at a better time. Sony plans to phase out the PS3 version of the PlayStation Store, with the final curtain falling in July 2027. Once that happens, you won’t be able to purchase any new digital games for the console.
While you can still download games you’ve already purchased for now, no one really knows how long that will remain possible. For this reason, fans are concerned about how they can preserve their game libraries. Emulation is becoming the best way to ensure these games aren’t lost forever.
The Future of Gaming
Sony is pushing quite hard for a future where we only buy digital games, which is making many people unhappy. This has sparked a major debate about what it actually means to “own” a game. If you can no longer play your disc, does it really still belong to you?
That’s why projects like RPCS3 are extremely important. They offer gamers a way to keep their games—regardless of what the companies decide regarding their stores. We’ll have to wait and see if the team ultimately succeeds in getting 100% of the games to run. For now, it feels like a victory for gamers everywhere to be able to pop in a disc and start playing on a PC.
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