The RPCS3 emulator was already excellent, but now it has a feature that could be very useful in the future!
PS3 emulation isn’t perfect yet (the Cell processor is no lightweight… it’s not on x86-64 architecture like the PlayStation 4, whose emulation is improving at an alarming rate for exactly that reason), but RPCS3 can boot the entire PlayStation 3 library if you have a sufficiently powerful PC. PlayStation Network can emulate more games, and this week’s update adds more games to this great feature!
PlayStation Network matchmaking can be mimicked by the emulator, making it much easier to connect to someone else if you want to play against each other online (or play together). RPCS3 has a companion service, RPCN, which is an open source server that emulates the PS3’s peer-to-peer connection. RPCN is at version 1.3 and has been enhanced with several PSN features that some games require for online multiplayer fun.
What are the new games that can now be played online? Armored Core 4, Armored Core: For Answer, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, OutRun Online Arcade, Ridge Racer 7, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection, The Punisher: No Mercy, Top Spin 3, Wangan Midnight. RipleyTom, the developer, wrote on GitHub that all PS3 games from Arc System Works have the server implementation fixed, so Persona 4 Arena works, but you could also mention Soul Calibur 5 or King of Fighters XIII.
So the update is only good for older games because they use APIs to connect older players. If a game is not already playable online, you will need to decrypt the game’s code to create a custom server. Metal Gear Solid 4’s online component, MGO2, has this, as PC servers have been running since 2021, so it’s not an impossible task.
Here‘s the list of supported games, here you can see how to get your netplay working.
