The first Playstation 4 emulator is currently under development and is called "Orbital"

DSOGaming writes: "Now here is something really interesting. While we still haven’t seen a bug-free Playstation 3 emulator, coder AlexAltea is working on the first dedicated Playstaion 4 emulator for Windows and Linux. This PS4 emulator is called Orbital, is still in a very early stage, and it does not run any commercial games yet."

[aConIsDemocracy]

it's easier and more fun to just buy a ps4. hacked consoles are just crap. no point.

[Menech]

This is talking about PC emulation, which brings a whole set of advantages over console counterparts.

For example being able to emulate Wii/Wii U Games at 4K on the PC with a locked 60 FPS.

The PS4 Emulator will be much more heavy in system requirements one would assume however.

[aConIsDemocracy]

my bad. ill will try to read next time. :(

[blackblades]

Eh, the ps3 is not even perfect hell ps2 doesn't even work much on nvidia shield tv.

[Silly gameAr]

On the bright side, no more port begging.

[antikbaka]

Future news about nothing

[Jon_Targaryen]

Agreed, it's like the DOA PS3 emulator

[Jon_Targaryen]

Lol "many" only Demon's Souls works as intended

[TallonIV]

Nice!

[chris235]

nice proof of concept. but other than that totally useless. emulators do suck. always have sucked, always will suck.

[Omnislashver36]

This will ultimately suck. Even if they could emulate some games at native 4K60 it would require an insanely powerful PC, one that costs more than just buying the console.

And PS5 is right around the corner. We'll likely get PS4 games at 4K60 on it anyway.

So all in all- useless. Absolutely useless.

[Jon_Targaryen]

Can't even emulate PS3 properly, yet and they already wanna emulate PS4? GOOD LUCK!

[septemberindecember]

PS4 would likely be relatively easier to develop an emulator for, since it doesn’t have to deal with emulating six or seven different SPE’s in addition to everything else.

[Jon_Targaryen]

Realistically you'll need a processor and GPU 7 times stronger compared to its hardware to even be able to emulate it. That doesn't even factor in the optimized code that goes with it.

Heck even PS2 emulation is still in its beta, sure majority work but the rest of them just stutter even with the best if the best of the best.

[septemberindecember]

@Jon

PS2 emulation is difficult because of the Emotion Engine, not because of power.

You don’t necessarily need a drastically more powerful GPU or CPU, you just need an efficient emulator. Unfortunately, many emulators aren’t efficient and need drastic amounts of overhead. The more complicated the emulation, the more overhead needed.

This is why GameCube emulators (and even Wii emulators) are functionally better than PS2 emulators despite the GameCube and Wii being more powerful.

[The_Sage]

Won't Sony sue their butts off?

Another thought... Stuff like this is what is going to cause companies to start requiring always online, so that the game can report what console number it is on before it can be played.

[septemberindecember]

Sony has tried to sue emulators before, and each case they took to court they lost. Look up Sony v. Connectix and Sony v. Bleem.

Also, always online may not work as a deterrent, as there are emulators that can connect to servers as well. Such as Dolphin.

[The_Sage]

What I mean with the always online bit is, when you load up a game information will be sent about the consoles identification, location, user account, etc... to the company. If everything doesn't match, the game could not be played.

[sampsonon]

and a patch later and it's useless

[ShadowWolf712]

They-uh... they can't patch your PC, broski.

It's a PC emulator, not a hacked console.

[sampsonon]

it will force them to make all their games day one patch and believe me they will do it as soon as this emulator goes live.

but keep the dream alive. ps4 $199 , get a job.

[ShadowWolf712]

Doing that is essentially going full digital and that's gonna lead to consumer backlash. They're not gonna lock the entire game behind a Day 1 patch. Plus not every emulated game is pirated. Lotta folks just rip their copies off the disc or console HDD (especially for patch data) onto their PC HDD and play that way, and that's completely legal.

This thing's a long ways off from being able to run a single game yet anyways, so idk why everyone's trying to make a big deal out of it. PS5'll be near before it gets anywhere near fully operational.

[sampsonon]

@ShadowWolf712: i guarantee you that if Orbital is released they would rather go online patch to play then lose all that money in sales. and they don't need to go full digital, they will just make sure you need a ps4 and a hard copy that needs a patch, like most games need already, in order to play.

take that to the bank.