RPCS3 reaches major milestone following Sony’s PS3 store shutdown announcement

With Sony’s recent announcement that the PS3 Store and the PS Vita Store are closing down in 2027, RPCS3, the PS3 emulator, which is now quite stable, has made incredible strides with the PS3’s nearly 4,000-game library. While some PS3 games never made it to PS4 or PS5, RPCS3 is taking things a step further for game preservation, with 75% of all PlayStation 3 games now playable on PC.

With the closure of the PS3 Store, fans won’t be able to access older titles and content, leaving many concerned that classic games may be lost to time. However, the RPCS3 development team shared an update on X and stated:

“75% of all PlayStation 3 games are now PLAYABLE on PC! RPCS3 continues to be improved with new features, fixes, and optimizations, bringing it ever closer to preserving the entire PS3 library.”

This comes after Sony made its official announcement: “After nearly two decades of supporting the PS3 console generation, we wanted to let you know we will be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3 as well as the PS Vita. PlayStation Store on PS3 will close in select markets this year, followed by global closures next year. That means new content purchases will no longer be possible. To ease the transition, players will still be able to download previously purchased content after the closing date for the foreseeable future.”

Meanwhile, the open-source RPCS3 emulator has made major strides in game preservation. According to the RPCS3 Compatibility List, out of 3,559 tracked video games, 2,681 games are now listed as Playable, meaning many gamers can enjoy older PS3 games with optimal performance, 60FPS patches, and the ability to upscale games to their desired resolution.

However, another 23% of PS3 games are still in progress, as players have reported glitches, bugs, and performance issues that severely compromise the playability of these titles on PC.

Many beloved titles that have yet to make it to the current PlayStation generation and are still locked to the PS3 ecosystem, like Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the Ratchet & Clank games, older Infamous titles, and Killzone games, can now be experienced all over again on RPCS3. With a renewed PS3 still fetching north of $150 on Amazon even as Sony's announcement effectively cuts it off from access to its storefront, emulation might just be the best way for gamers looking to experience the console's titles, many of which were exclusives at launch.