Sony has officially confirmed that PlayStation 2 emulation is coming to PlayStation 4.
Speaking in a statement to Wired, the format holder confirmed that it is indeed working on bringing PS2 titles to its current-generation console following a slew of evidence supporting the feature appeared online earlier this week, notably the Star Wars Battlefront PS4 bundle that included a series of classic PS2 games.
“We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,” said the company. “We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”
Furthermore, a report on DigitalFoundry has shed a little more light on Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, the classic PS2 games included in the aforementioned Star Wars Battlefront bundle. Three of those titles are not ports of old code to PS4; rather, they are running on proprietary emulation software, the report has claimed.
Essentially, this allows PS2 games to run on the PS4 as if they were being played on their native games console, and sometimes clock in at a higher resolution to boot. PS4 obviously does not have backwards compatibility, making it the only Sony console since the PS2 to eschew the feature. Early PS3 models allowed gamers to play both PSOne and PS2 games, for example.
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. Sony recently added a whopping 105 new games to the service in North America, including 21 games from Capcom alone. PS Now recently launched in the U.K. where it will cost you £12.99 per month.
Since we’re in a bit of a retro mood, be sure to check out 5 faces that defined the PSOne era to satisfy your nostalgia.