Massive PS3 emulator update brings Android gaming to the next level

In what is one of its biggest updates, the RPCS3-Android emulator has just received a major update in the form of a settings menu, allowing gamers on Android to adjust anything from the resolution and frame limit to save states and beyond for their beloved PlayStation 3 games.

Specifically, one of the developers behind the RPCS3 emulator for PCs released an early version of an Android port last month, allowing gamers to play PS3 games on their smartphones, and the recently launched alpha opens a world of possibilities for additional tweaks, per GitHub notes on March 19.

Previously, the RPCS3 team had expressed doubt that the mobile port of the PS3 emulator would happen anytime soon, even disallowing Android and iOS discussion in its communities due to the “high toxicity of several individuals in the Android community, who refuse to take no for an answer.”

PS3 Android emulator specifications

However, the developers seem to have changed their minds, or at least one of them has, bringing the project to Android 12+. Now, the emulator has received its first big-time update on the latest alpha, including the settings menu, so that users no longer need to dig deep into text files to tweak the emulation.

Here, you can tweak virtually everything about the emulation, including the rendering resolution (set to 720p by default) and graphics renderer. Speaking of graphics, the latest PS3 emulator version makes it easy to switch between custom GPU drivers for a slightly better performance.

There are more additions, but none of them include support for Bluetooth controllers yet. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised if it does come out soon, given the increased activities by the founder, DH, on the project. If you want to try out the Android PS3 emulator, both alpha 5.0 and alpha 5.1 are available on GitHub.

Elsewhere, Google is also taking gaming to another level with Android XR, a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered operating system coming soon to headsets and glasses, which it has developed in collaboration with Samsung and Qualcomm, as the technology company announced back in December.