PS3 Emulator Released on Android Sparks Controversy

Although retro and last-gen game consoles are still popular and readily available, many players prefer to use emulators (also known as emus), as they tend to run older games that aren’t themselves widely available anymore. While there are many well-known and reputable emulators around, there aren’t many for PS3 or that are designed to work on Android devices.

However, this changed this week with the release of APS3e, a PS3 emulator available for Android and built on existing open source code. This point is where it gets a little murky, though, as the original code is free whereas the tweaked code for APS3e is not.

“Open source will be open source when certain conditions are met, not now,” the developer, aenu, said on Reddit when asked if they would release the source code. 

An Unnecessary Paywall For Devs

It is important to mention that APS3e, as an app, is free to use. Anyone can download the apk file and try it out on their Android device. There are also reports coming in from users that it works reasonably well, with older games such as Terraria and Shovel Knight running with no issues.

The controversy and contention stems from the code itself, as aenu is looking to make money from using something that isn’t entirely their work. 

Open Source License

To understand why this has ruffled more than a few feathers in the emulator and coder communities, it’s worth noting that “open source” code posted on repositories such as GitHub are typically presented as free to use; in this case, under a GPLv2 license.

Code modified (or “forked”) from existing code that uses this license is under an obligation to also be presented as open source, so other developers can examine and refine it without having to pay. 

The developer of APS3e has not done this. Although they’ve used two (free) open source projects called Termux and RPCS3 as the backbone of the emulator, they’ve asked for donations, with an initial sum of $5,000 lowered to $2,000. The source code will only be released once this amount is met.