The developer behind This War of Mine: The Little Ones has suggested that the PlayStation 2 emulation feature Sony recently introduced in the PlayStation 4 is ultimately destined to fail.
Speaking with GamingBolt, 11 bit Studios PR and Marketing Manager, Karol Zajaczkowski, suggested that only a very small percentage of PS4 users take advantage of the emulation feature.
“It’s a thing that may only interest I don’t know, 5% of the PS4 owners? Probably even less. That’s why in my opinion it will fail in the end. Of course it will be available as a feature, but as soon as everyone realizes there is no money in it, the developers will stop doing it and new titles will stop appearing.”
Sony introduced PS2 emulation in its current-generation home console late last year, although it’s not as simple as shoving in your old PS2 games and firing them up. Instead, gamers are required to pay for downloadable copies of classic titles, though this time they come with enhanced 1080p visuals and Trophy support.
Previous Sony consoles have included traditional backwards compatibility, with early models of the PS3 allowing gamers to play both PSOne and PS2 games. However, this feature was trimmed for later hardware revisions of the system.
Sony is investing heavily in PlayStation Now, the cloud-based streaming service that allows gamers to enjoy a range of software on PlayStation-compatible devices. Right now only PS3 games are available to stream, though Sony has plans to make available its back catalogue at some point in the future. The U.K. version of the service recently received over 20 new games.