PS2 Emulation confirmed for PS4 by Sony

[Henry Spencer]

Sony is working on bringing PlayStation 2 titles to the PlayStation 4, the company confirmed to WIRED Thursday evening.

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

It seems as if the first PS2 games using this emulation software to run on PS4 are already out: a bundle available now at retail that includes a PS4 console and the Star Wars: Battlefront game also includes a selection of bonus classic games: Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

The latter three games, according to the Digital Foundry, as reported by Eurogamer, aren’t simply ports of old code to the PS4. Instead, there are a number of signs indicating that they’re running on proprietary emulation software.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/playstatio ... -confirms/

Finally. Between Xbox One's backwards compatibility opening up for 360 recently and Wii U backwards compatibility with Wii at launch, it was about time Sony caught up.

[Monkei]

I wonder if they'll somehow add trophies to these emulated games. Years ago Sony patented some technology for adding trophies to games without changing anything about the games' code. Might have been for trophy-less PS3 games like Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, which will probably come to PS Now sooner or later, possibly including a set of trophies then. But it could also be meant for PS1 or PS2 games. Hopefully we'll learn more about all that at PSX.

[Sonikku]

I'm surprised from this move. Sony stripped their emulated BC of PS2 games from the PS3 that did not cost them anything to include for the sole reason that they wanted to charge people for the games a second time over PSN versus letting them just use their own discs. I suppose Microsoft making big inroads with BC has forced them to compete. Glad to hear, in any event.

[Raithos]

Great news if it's legit emulated BC and not just to resell us games we've already bought. No one has time for that with PCSX2 as good as it is. I really hope Microsoft putting BC on the One has lit a fire under their ass and it makes them do it right. I hope I'm wrong, but Its most likely to sell them on PSN.

[OL]

Yeah, I'm slightly confused by what this actually means. Just PS4-compatible digital versions (which would be my first guess), or will my retail discs of Haunting Ground and Dawn of Dreams actually work on my PS4?
Amazing news if it indeed turns out to be the latter (I just had visions of PC emulation, of old games running at optional higher settings ), but for some reason that seems unlikely to me. The article seems to think that's what it is, but they could just be assuming things, because nothing in the actual quotes from Sony is specific enough about it.

[Monkei]

^ I strongly doubt that it's about backwards compatibility. The PS1 and PS2 games you could get for your PS3 from the PS Store were emulated, too. My guess is this is gonna be the same.

[AnimeGamer183]

They eventually have to bring the PS3 PSN content to PS4, which would include PS1 and PS2 classics especially. As it stands right now you there is still MUCH more available for PS3 and that has to change, im guessing thats what this is about. but If I am able to put my old PS2 discs into my PS4 and play them, that would be a great addition too. *dreams on*

[Mr357]

They eventually have to bring the PS3 PSN content to PS4, which would include PS1 and PS2 classics especially. As it stands right now you there is still MUCH more available for PS3 and that has to change, im guessing thats what this is about. but If I am able to put my old PS2 discs into my PS4 and play them, that would be a great addition too. *dreams on*

The PS3 is extremely difficult to emulate. They'll probably never go any further than re-releasing certain PS3 titles.

[AnimeGamer183]

I didnt really mean PS3 games, but more like indie stuff thats for PS3 and not PS4 (that is easily ported with little difficulty), PS1, PS2, the library of apps. etc. the remaining stuff that makes the PS3 such a media power house and the like.

Its such a sony move that they announce this with hardly any details of what it will consist of. Its just like dangling a string in front of a kittens face.

[Axm]

Just as AG said, this is really more about bringing over legacy classics from PS1/PS2 from PSN that are already available on PS3/Vita. They will charge for this same as its always been.
The only real good news about this is that when all our PS3's die out atleast the PS4 will still have all our purchases to re-download.
This was an inevitable move to protect consumers purchases and push those classic gamer users off PS3 and into PS4.
Only question is now how fast they update the PS4 store with the existing titles from the PS3/Vita stores.

[Riku Rose]

I'm surprised from this move. Sony stripped their emulated BC of PS2 games from the PS3 that did not cost them anything to include for the sole reason that they wanted to charge people for the games a second time over PSN versus letting them just use their own discs. I suppose Microsoft making big inroads with BC has forced them to compete. Glad to hear, in any event.

It cost them about $5 per console to include the chip that made BC possible for the PS3. They sold about 50 million consoles after that which meant they saved about $250 million which is amazing for a company like Sony which outside of the PlayStation section is struggling.

I imagine this will just be digital PS2 games you can buy. Anything more then that I would be amazed.

[Sonikku]

I'm surprised from this move. Sony stripped their emulated BC of PS2 games from the PS3 that did not cost them anything to include for the sole reason that they wanted to charge people for the games a second time over PSN versus letting them just use their own discs. I suppose Microsoft making big inroads with BC has forced them to compete. Glad to hear, in any event.

It cost them about $5 per console to include the chip that made BC possible for the PS3. They sold about 50 million consoles after that which meant they saved about $250 million which is amazing for a company like Sony which outside of the PlayStation section is struggling.

I imagine this will just be digital PS2 games you can buy. Anything more then that I would be amazed.

It cost them a few dollars for the chip. The chip that offered perfect playback of PS2 titles. Sony criticized Microsoft for turning to software and emulation for backwards compatibility. Then Sony took out the chip to save money and turned to emulated backwards compatibility just like Microsoft had done. Then Sony removed the no cost emulated Backwards Compatibility too, leaving newer PS3 models utterly incapable of playing PS2 discs. The emulated BC may only have worked effectively for 80% of PS2 titles but that is sure as heck better than nothing at all. Removing the chip was perhaps a smidge understandable. It cost them a few dollars. The emulated software variant in contrast cost them $0. Done solely to give greater incentive to re-buy digital PS2 titles in the playstation store.

Fun Fact: With the right hacks you can restore the emulated backwards compatibility to the PS3.

[Riku Rose]

Good for them.

The amount of HD remakes/remasters we see show that they turn a profit and at the end of the day video games are a business and they have to make money.

Also 99% of the people who still have a stack of PS2 games and are complaining they can't play them on their PS4 still have a PS2.

[Riku Rose]

Sony accidently posted a video to Youtube that gave us some info on this. Looks like games will be in 1080p but digital downloads and no disc support.

[OL]

Supposedly the Star Wars PS4 bundle came with some PS2 games on-board, so I looked up some videos, and yeah, it all looks very PC emulation-esque, with all the jaggies smoothed out and whatnot. The games themselves weren't impressive ones, but it'll be nice to eventually see some games like Haunting Ground or Gungrave with that stuff applied.