PS2 Emulation Confirmed by Sony for PS4

Published: November 20, 2015 10:40 AM /

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Playstation

Sony has confirmed that it is working on bringing Playstation 2 titles to the Playstation 4 using emulation technology. First reported by Digital Foundry, who noticed several games added that appeared to be running via emulation, and the news was confirmed by Wired, in an e-mail statement from Sony:

“We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,” said a Sony representative. “We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”

Rumors of PS2 emulation have been around for a few months now. Back in January, Gamespot reported on an anonymous source telling them that Sony was working on the technology for the PS4 to gain the ability to emulate Ps2 game. On October 26, a survey was sent out by Sony asking a number of questions about what features PS4 users would want added. One of these questions was "PS1 classics" and "PS2 classics" support.

It turns out that there are already games available using this emulation technology. A Ps4, Star Wars: Battlefront bundle that is now selling at retail includes a selection of bonus classic games: Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. These games, barring Super Star Wars, are all PS2 titles being emulated using the emulation technology. Digital Foundry took them out for a spin to analyze how they perform and how Sony have added trophy support, which you can see in their video. Of note, the emulation makes use of upscaling heavily, especially on 2D artwork which may not create the greatest of visual appearances. 3D assets though got an upgrade on quality with the resolution increasing on them, and utilizing an effect to mimic anti-aliasing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA6TdEstNUg

There are still a lot of questions surrounding PS2 games on PS4. Will you be able to put in a PS2 disk and play it that way, or will you have to buy the game again? The placement of the games onto the ESRB site would appear to hint at it being sold again, but as of now, Sony is saying no more about their plans. It does seem a bit far fetched that we would be able to use a PS2 disk but for now we just don't now how it will work. Hopefully soon Sony will come out and say exactly how all this will work, putting the confusion to rest.

How do you feel about PS2 emulation coming to the PS4?  

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Writer for TechRaptor since 2014. An avid follower of the gaming industry that loves to write about it. Currently a student. From Glasgow, Scotland.