PS5 Emulation makes big progress again as it reaches GTA 5 loading screen

Q: What exact progress did SharpEmu make with GTA 5 in this update?

SharpEmu can now boot GTA 5 to its loading screen, showing the game logo and loading indicators. The build stalls out shortly afterward during the North Yankton intro sequence, so it is nowhere near playable.

Q: How does SharpEmu’s GTA 5 result compare to KytyPS5’s earlier GTA 5 main menu milestone?

SharpEmu gets GTA 5 as far as the game's loading screen and shows the logo and loading indicators before stalling in the North Yankton intro sequence. By contrast, KytyPS5 previously loaded GTA 5's main menu and settings screen, though without any actual gameplay behind it.

Q: Which other PS5 games have experimental emulators pushed to menus or creation screens recently?

Experimental PS5 emulators have recently pushed GTA 5 as far as its main menu and settings screen, Demon’s Souls Remake to its character creation screen, and Ghost of Yotei to its splash screen. The KytyPS5 project is the one noted for getting GTA 5 menus to load (see Related article "PS5 emulator boots GTA V on PC as first 3D games begin running"), while SharpEmu reached Demon’s Souls Remake's character creation screen.

Q: Why is PS5 emulation considered easier in some respects than PS3 emulation like RPCS3?

Because the PS5 uses an AMD Zen 2 CPU that is similar to a regular PC processor, its CPU architecture is much closer to what PCs already run, making low-level CPU emulation inherently simpler than the PS3. By contrast, the PS3 used the Cell processor with a notoriously strange architecture that made RPCS3 much harder to develop for. The article notes this is only part of the challenge, since graphics API, shader translation, and kernel calls for modern games still present major hurdles.

GTA 5 now loads on an experimental PS5 emulator, but the real reason this progress is speeding up has little to do with the game itself.

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Hassam Nasir

Tech Reporter

Published Jul 26, 2026 5:35 PM CDT

1 minute & 45 seconds read time

TL;DR: Experimental PS5 emulators like SharpEmu and KytyPS5 now reach GTA 5's loading or menu screens, but gameplay remains far off. Progress reflects frequent small updates and possible motivation from platform shifts (no PC/physical disc plans), yet full emulation of graphics, shaders and kernel calls is still distant.

Voice: Hassam NasirSpeed

0:00 / 3:11

PS5 emulation keeps inching forward, and the latest update comes from SharpEmu, which can now get GTA 5 as far as its loading screen. Footage posted on X shows the game displaying its logo and loading indicators before stalling out in the North Yankton intro sequence.

That's not nothing, but it's also nowhere near playable. This builds on an earlier milestone from a separate project, KytyPS5, which recently got GTA 5's main menu and settings screen to load without any actual gameplay behind it. SharpEmu itself has been busy elsewhere too, having previously pushed Demon's Souls Remake all the way to its character creation screen, up from just booting and crashing a week earlier. Ghost of Yotei has apparently reached its splash screen through similar testing, though it crashes shortly after.

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It's worth being realistic about what any of this actually means. PS5 emulation is still roughly where PS4 emulation was in its earliest days, and it took projects like ShadPS4 a long time to go from loading screens to functional gameplay. RPCS3, the PS3 emulator, needed years of work before commercial games became reliably playable, and that project had to deal with the Cell processor's notoriously strange architecture along the way.

The PS5 should theoretically be easier to work with, since it runs on an AMD Zen 2 chip that isn't too far removed from a regular PC CPU. However, loading a game's executable and running a few native instructions is a long way from handling the graphics API, shader translation, and kernel calls a modern game actually leans on, and that's the part still being pieced together.

So no, this doesn't mean GTA 6 would be playable on PC through emulation anytime soon. If anything, the gap between a loading screen and a stable 3D open-world game is enormous, and GTA 6 is a far more demanding title than anything SharpEmu or KytyPS5 have touched so far.

That said, it looks like the timing here isn't a coincidence. In addition to not coming to PC, Rockstar has confirmed GTA 6 won't get a physical disc at launch, and Sony has already said it's ending physical PlayStation disc production entirely by 2028. Combine that with Sony largely stepping back from bringing its first-party titles to PC on any predictable schedule, and it's easy to see why emulator developers seem more motivated than usual right now.

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Question #1

What exact progress did SharpEmu make with GTA 5 in this update?

Question #2

How does SharpEmu’s GTA 5 result compare to KytyPS5’s earlier GTA 5 main menu milestone?

Question #3

Which other PS5 games have experimental emulators pushed to menus or creation screens recently?

Question #4

Why is PS5 emulation considered easier in some respects than PS3 emulation like RPCS3?

Have a question not listed here? Ask below and TweakBot will answer it.

This doesn't change the fact that these are still early, experimental builds without a realistic playable timeline attached. However, the pace of small updates, arriving every few days across multiple competing projects, does suggest PS5 emulation is moving faster than PS4's did at a similar stage.