Water
Play PS3 games on PC
Water is a game launcher for Windows that plays PlayStation 3 games. The first time you install one, it downloads the RPCS3 emulator, checks it and sets it up. Then Play starts the game fullscreen, with your controller ready.
The PS3 emulator, set up for you
Water plays PlayStation 3 games with RPCS3, the free, open-source PlayStation 3 emulator made by its own team; Water isn’t affiliated with it. Water downloads its official release, checks it before using it, and sets what each game needs before it starts:
- Fullscreen, straight into the game, with no setup wizard and no settings to open.
- PS3 games at 1080p.
- Saves for each profile, so nobody plays over someone else’s game.
- Your controller mapped: DualShock 4, DualSense or Xbox, with no driver to install. A second controller is player two.
What your PC needs
RPCS3’s makers recommend 6 cores and 12 threads with AVX2, and 16 GB of memory; it needs 8 GB at least. The PS3 asks the most of any console Water plays.
Settings › PC Specs in Water compares your PC with each console, and a PS3 game’s page says how well your PC plays it before you install.
By hand, or with Water
Playing a PS3 game on a PC by hand is an evening of setup:
- Download the emulator and work through its settings: graphics, saves, controller.
- Find a copy of the game you can trust, and unpack it.
- Point the emulator at it, and map your controller button by button.
With Water, you press Install, then Play.
1,515 PS3 games
Water lists 1,515 PlayStation 3 games, every one an English release with its cover, screenshots and details, shared by people on the BitTorrent network.
The other consoles Water sets up: PS2 emulator, GameCube and Wii emulator, PSP emulator, PS1 emulator, DS emulator, GBA emulator, N64 emulator, SNES and NES emulator, Xbox emulator, and PS Vita emulator.
Try it with a PS3 game
Your first install is free: Water installs any one game, PC or console, and it stays installed. Press Install: the emulator, the game and your controller are set up by the time you press Play.
