Sony confirms that it is working with developers to bring games from the PS2 to the PlayStation 4. It’s as if they looked at Xbox One’s backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 and said, no, we can be even more old school.
“We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,” a Sony representative told multiple media outlets via email. “We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”
There are still a few questions floating around. For one, there’s no confirmation on when these games would become available, and how purchasing them would work. The PlayStation 2 was around long before any kind of digital distribution system or PlayStation accounts. It seems likely that gamers will have to repurchase the games, even if they owned them for the PS2.
So it won’t quite be like Xbox One’s backwards compatibility, which lets users redownload their old Xbox 360 games, Achievement data and all.
The games will run using an emulator, just like the bundle that Sony released in October which had Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.
This was all foreshadowed when the European game rating organization, PEGI, released ratings for PlayStation 4 versions of some old PS2 games back in September. Those included Ape Escape 2, Dark Cloud 2, and Twisted Metal: Black.
So next time Sony tells you they’re not interested in backwards compatibility…well, maybe they just mean you’re not going to be able to play your games. You might still be able to pay for them, and play them all over again.
