It’s no secret that a lot of PC players have been asking for a PC port of Bloodborne. And while Sony does not appear interested in something like that, at least for now, we might soon be able to play it on PC. That is of course via emulation as the latest PlayStation 4 emulator, shadPS4, is now able to boot up and load the game.
Now before getting TOO excited, Bloodborne is NOT playable on the shadPS4 yet. Right now, the emulator can only load the game and go to the character screen (which in itself is a huge step). There are also major color issues and some visual artifacts. So no, you can’t play it yet. Still, this is the first time we see a PS4 emulator running Bloodborne on PC.
Just yesterday, we shared the news about shadPS4 running some 3D commercial games. And, from what we can see, its team released a new version for it. This new version, V0.1.1 is the one that can launch Bloodborne.
As the team noted, shadPS4 is the only PlayStation 4 emulator right now that can launch Bloodborne. The other six PS4 emulators (psOff, fpPS4, Spine, RPCSX, Kyty and GPCS4) do not seem capable of doing something like this.
Again, this is a huge step towards emulating PS4. Thus, it will be interesting to see the progress of this emulator. From the looks of it, it seems to have the most potential out of all the PlayStation 4 emulators.
Now I’ll be realistic here and I’ll say it. Don’t expect to be playing Bloodborne on PC in 2025 (or even in 2026). It will take a long time until something like that happens. Still, this is a start, so kudos to the shadPS4 team.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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What if the Virtual Boy could play Bloodborne? jokes aside, is nice to finally see some 3D games being emulated
Spine, which had the most potential so far, appears to be dead, since its last release was two years ago.
Unlike the other PS4 emulators, it was a translator of Sony's APIs used within their OS derived from FreeBSD, similar in nature how Valve's Proton is a translator of Windows' APIs to Linux native ones.
Thus it was easily the most performant one so far, because translation is many times faster than low-level emulation.
That's why the Steam Deck is able to run the majority of Windows-only games with excellent performance, with compatibility improving further with each new release of Proton.
i wouldnt call that "running"
ps4 emulation is still at an early stage after all.
>Categorized under "PC Performance Analyses"
John, it might be worth your time to create an "Emulation" category. After all, it's an integral part of the "dark" portion of the "dark side of gaming."
I love the gameplay, really neat.
lol…
Why are people acting like you can't already play the game on PC? Surely a video game journalist should know this considering it's there job.
Because you can't. Unless you stream through PS Plus; putting up with the input delay and artifacts. And being locked out of the DLC.