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First reported by Eurogamer, FromSoftware dataminer and modder Lance McDonald has revealed on Bluesky that his 60fps hack for Bloodborne has been DMCA’d by Sony. It remains possible to remove Bloodborne’s original 30fps cap via the ShadPS4 emulator on PC, but the decision remains a heavy-handed attempt at intimidating the modding and emulation community.
“On February 21st, 2021, I created and released a patch for Bloodborne which makes the game run at 60fps,” McDonald wrote on Bluesky. “Today I received a DMCA takedown notification on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment asking that I remove links to the patch I posted on the internet, so now I’ve done so.”
The patch in question removes Bloodborne’s 30fps cap on original hardware. As discussed in a May 2020 Digital Foundry interview with McDonald, this doesn’t produce particularly desirable results on the base PS4, but the PS4 Pro is capable of running Bloodborne at 720p 60fps using its “Boost Mode.” McDonald characterized his work as a proof of concept whose general release he was holding back in anticipation of an official PS5 update to Bloodborne from Sony. Such an update still hasn’t materialized five years later, and McDonald made his own workaround available for download in 2021.
The legal basis for the mod’s removal strikes me as highly questionable: The consumer right to modify software for noncommercial use has a strong precedent. But, as is the case with many DMCA’d mod projects, the asymmetry between a global corporation and an individual hobbyist makes fending off these attacks unrealistic. This tactic of intimidation is something Nintendo has long used to a chilling effect, and I find it ominous to see Sony ape that behavior here. But the move is also as baffling as it is risible: Not only has this mod just been out in the wild for four years, it’s still much more a proof of concept than anything else. I simply can’t believe there’s a significant number of people out there jailbreaking their PS4 Pros to play Bloodborne at 720p 60fps.
PS4 emulation is a far more promising avenue for a generally accessible homebrew remaster of Bloodborne. Last September, we reported on the amazing leaps being made with the ShadPS4 emulator to run Bloodborne on PC. Last month, Digital Foundry showcased how the game is already playable from start to finish on ShadPS4 at 1080p 60fps with a mid-range processor and high-end graphics card. Did Sony legal confuse ShadPS4 and McDonald’s work? Or was this just a lashing out at a potentially more edge case target, given that McDonald’s hack requires a jailbroken PS4 system?
A potential silver lining is that this could be Sony finally returning its attention to Bloodborne after so many years, but even that gives me little comfort. A PS5 patch and—do I even dare say it—a PC release of the game would be a sales and goodwill coup, particularly after the Elden Ring phenomenon. Why kick a largely harmless, niche project to the curb on your way to the celebration and in full view of the crowd?
What’s more, I’m a glass half full guy usually, but I remain a radical Bloodborne pessimist. I think it will make its way to modern systems, but as a Demon’s Souls-style “remaster” that butchers the original art style, the game I actually want to revisit locked eternally to its console of origin were it not for the efforts of emulator developers. My PlayStation 4 is for watching reruns of Gilmore Girls—I don’t like playing videogames on it.
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Kurt Indovina
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