The extra chapters.

[Mr. Snake Eyes]

I heard something about ps3 and ds chapters. What's the story behind them?

[Ohagi-Chan]

Higurashi was originally developed by the 07thExpansion group with their writer, Ryukishi07, as their leader.
After the initial success of Higurashi, a company called Alchemist developed more chapters of the story that were implemented on PS2, PS3 and Nintendo DS consoles. Ryukishi07 played a major role in the development of these chapters also.

While Higurashi as a franchise belongs to 07thExpansion, these extra chapters are owned by Alchemist, as are the artwork and music that Alchemist comissioned for their own games.

Matsuri edition is a popular release owned by Alchemist; it retells the original 8 question and answer arcs of 07thExpansion's Higurashi core story, but in the form of a branching visual novel rather than several linear ones. It was missing a few of the final arcs that appeared in the original work, and replaced them with several new arcs that better suited the branching design.

In adition to Alchemist's extra chapters, there are also manga-exclusive arcs. I'm not familiar with all of them, but I've enjoyed reading Yoigoshi-hen [Beyond Midnight arc] and Onisareshi-hen [Demon Exposing arc]. Onisareshi-hen is my favourite of all Higurashi arcs and features a less common protagonist, Natsumi Kimiyoshi, who also appeared in some Alchemist NDS titles.

[Ohagi-Chan]

I should also mention that as of currently, there are no contracts that permit the localisation of Alchemist games for retail outside of Japan (There are no official translations).

[ferrelas]

There is an ongoing effort to rip/port the ps only chapters to the engine that these games use, and subsequently translate them, not sure if it's active, or what progress they have made.

[Ohagi-Chan]

Originally posted by ferrelas:

There is an ongoing effort to rip/port the ps only chapters to the engine that these games use, and subsequently translate them, not sure if it's active, or what progress they have made.

Specifically the Himatsubushi game is supposed to host that project.
I don't know anything about that project personally but a member of my AYRFWata group (a member named Belm) has mentioned it before and even posted a link to it on Gitlabs. I think.

[ferrelas]

Yeah, I found it on github somehow. Can be a good thing to remember that it is copyright violation, but that said I'd be on it in a second if I knew more kanji.