The latest version of shadPS4, one of the most promising PlayStation 4 emulators, has just reached a new milestone by running The Order: 1886 for the first time. While it’s not exactly a smooth experience, with plenty of visual glitches, this breakthrough signals progress in emulating PS4 exclusives on PC.
Videos shared by YouTube user John GodGames Emus show around 30 minutes of gameplay running on a beastly setup: a Ryzen 9 7900X3D processor paired with 32 GB RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070. Despite this horsepower, the game crawls along, mainly because the emulator itself is still in early development stages. CPU and GPU usage remain low, indicating that the bottleneck lies in the emulator’s code rather than hardware limitations.
Visual issues abound, so even if you could stomach the painfully low frame rate, the experience isn’t quite playable yet. Still, it’s a step forward that fans tracking shadPS4’s progress will appreciate, though casual players might not be impressed just yet. How long will it take for it to improve to a playable state? Well, 2026 might be a more realistic guess than 2025.
Meanwhile, Driveclub, another PS4 exclusive, seems to be running better than ever on shadPS4. A video from YouTuber BrutalSam showcases rain effects inside the cockpit, looking nearly flawless, with no major graphical glitches. This hints that some games are closer to full playability on PC through the emulator.
shadPS4 also supports other PS4-only titles like Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Alienation, and The Witch & The Hundred Knight 2. It can launch classics such as inFAMOUS: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, and God of War 3 Remastered. Notably, Bloodborne is mostly playable from start to finish, with some minor complaints, but it remains one of the emulator’s crown jewels.
It’s impressive to see the ShadPS4 team focusing on PS4 exclusives that have yet to see PC ports. I’m curious about when The Order: 1886 will be truly playable. Will it be before the end of 2026? Only time will tell.
If you’d like to try shadPS4 for yourself, you can download it from this GitHub link. Be prepared for a work-in-progress, though.
