AnyPS5 ports PS5 executables to PC without emulation
AnyPS5 relinks PS5 executables for Linux and Windows instead of emulating them. One verified game so far, and the 87% figure needs context.
AnyPS5 is a GitHub project that takes PS5 executables and converts them into native binaries for Linux and Windows. No emulator, no separate runtime process. For hobbyists, that’s the interesting part. The goal is to run PS5 code as a regular PC program, not to build a fake PS5 around it.
The README describes a relinker that converts an executable into the target system’s native format, plus implementations of system PRX libraries suitable for dynamic linking. There’s also a shader recompiler that produces SPIR-V, validated through Spirv-Tools when you build with ANYPS5_ENABLE_SPIRV_TOOLS. Controllers work through SDL, and keyboard and mouse can be set up in an anyps5-input.ini file.
The status section is where I slow down. The “87% system libraries” in the Hacker News title is a share of the functions the project has declared so far. The README says it is not a share of every PS5 system function, and the total grows as more functions get declared. So the number tells you progress, not coverage. The project lists one verified game: Dreaming Sarah, a 2D platformer that it says runs at a stable 60 fps on a GTX 1050 Ti with an i5-7500 at 3.4GHz.
Static recompilation isn’t new. N64Recomp, Zelda64Recomp and UnleashedRecomp work the same way: translate the original code ahead of time, then supply native replacements for the system. Emulators like RPCS3 run the whole machine in software instead. AnyPS5 is aiming at the recomp approach on PS5, which is a much bigger job. Picking a 2D platformer as the first proof is a sensible choice.
The project ships no firmware, keys or proprietary libraries. The disclaimer says you bring your own binaries and take responsibility for using them legally. It’s licensed under GPL-2.0 only.
My take: a Hacker News thread with 282 comments means people care, and I get why. But one game is a proof of concept, not a platform. I’d wait for a second and third verified title, and for the function count to say something about what games actually need. That’s where this either becomes a tool or stays a demo.
