PS5 emulation on PC has hit a new milestone because a video doing the rounds online shows the PS5’s system menu. It’s booting up on an ordinary PC, complete with the language and display setup screens you’d see when switching on a brand-new console.
Cue a flood of excited posts claiming PS5 exclusives are about to run on PC, which, I’ll be upfront with you all, is not quite what’s happening here. Let me explain.
What Actually Happened With PS5 Emulation on PC?
The clip was posted on X on 4 October by a user called VinasExplosao, and Kotaku picked it up on 6 October, describing it as the PS5’s menu running on PC through emulation, rather than Sony’s operating system actually being ported over at kernel level.
Kotaku and Console Creatures both point to RPCSX, an emulator project whose team says booting the PS4 and PS5 system software has been possible since early 2026. PC Gamer’s previous report comes from the creator of the PS3 emulator RPCS3. That’s a seriously impressive bit of work, isn’t it?
Worth NotingAs tbreak points out, the clip itself never names the emulator build, firmware or PC hardware being used, so while RPCSX is the obvious suspect, nobody has published a setup you can actually reproduce.
So Can You Play PS5 Games on PC Now?
Nope, not in any meaningful way, because the video shows menus and setup screens and that’s it, there’s no game in sight, and RPCSX’s own FAQ says booting games from the menu “remains a work in progress”, with only a handful of titles reaching in-game states so far.
Getting a console’s menu to load is a bit like getting the front door of a house open, it’s a necessary first step, but you’re still a very long way from having the heating on and dinner in the oven. Even Kotaku reckons this is a smaller deal than some of the louder corners of the internet are making it out to be.
Why Is PS5 Emulation Moving So Fast?
The genuinely interesting part is the speed, because the PS5 jailbreak scene has made big strides over the last few months, and every exploit that lets people peek under the bonnet of the console gives emulator developers more to work with.
It also helps that the PS5 is built on x86 AMD hardware not a million miles away from a gaming PC, which is a far friendlier starting point than the PS3’s famously nightmarish Cell processor… although “friendlier” in emulation terms still means years of painstaking work!
And yes, before anyone asks, some people, definitely not me, are already daydreaming about playing Ghost of Yōtei on their PC this way, but there’s no legal shortcut here, you’d need to dump firmware and games from a console you own, and right now there’s nothing playable to dump them for anyway. [ADD PERSONAL NOTE: which PS5 exclusive you’d most want preserved through emulation]
Should You Care About PS5 Emulation on PC Yet?
My take is that this is a fun milestone for emulation nerds and a good sign for game preservation in the long run, but for normal players it changes absolutely nothing today, so please don’t flog your PS5 on eBay off the back of a 56-second video.
Most of Sony’s big exclusives have been coming to PC officially a year or two after launch anyway, so if that’s what you’re after, patience is still the cheaper and far less stressful option. And if you want emulation news you can actually play with right now, our piece on RPCS3 running natively on jailbroken PS5s is the delightfully backwards version of this story, a PS5 playing PS3 games instead of a PC playing PS5 ones!
FAQ
Can you play PS5 games on PC with emulation?
Not yet. PS5 emulation on PC has only been shown booting the console’s system menu, and no games appear in the video.
Which emulator is behind the PS5 emulation on PC video?
Reports point to RPCSX, whose team says booting PS4 and PS5 system software has worked since early 2026, but the video itself doesn’t name the build used.
Is PS5 emulation legal?
Emulators themselves are generally legal in most places, but downloading PS5 firmware or games you don’t own is piracy, so the legitimate route is dumping them from your own console.
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