How Does PS2 Emulation Work On The PS4?

A few days ago Sony officially confirmed emulation of PlayStation 2 games for the PS4. It's an interesting strategy by the Japanese company which is most likely a reaction to Microsoft's support for Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One via the backwards compatibility update that was released for free a few days ago.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Just another proff the PS4 is indeed the PS2 reincarnated

[Necr0philiac]

I hope Sony eventually makes it so you can play a PS2 game off a disc.

[Genuine-User]

This is exactly how I want BC on current gen machines. Better resolution, frame-rate and AA with the added of unlocking trophies.

off-topic: How do I download these games? I've got a copy of Star Wars but I don't see the extra PS2 games.

[migh_and_highty]

The four games were free with the hardware bundles I believe. Super star wars is on ps store. I don't think the other three are yet

[Genuine-User]

That's a shame. I was looking forward to getting my hands on Bounty Hunter.

Thanks for the info.

[Majin-vegeta]

Like might mentioned they were bundled.But they will also sell them separately later on.

[Genuine-User]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably buy Bounty Hunter once it's released.

[ginsunuva]

You can achieve better resolution, framerate, and AA without touching the original game code because of the properties of emulation.

But you can't insert trophies, since the game has to be coded to trigger the trophy at certain points. So that's not happening unless they re-code portions of it.

[dantesparda]

Guess what, they got trophies. Sony is using a completely different method to put trophies on these games.

http://www.ign.com/articles...

[Larry L]

Hey very interesting link there. Great info and should be spread around in regards to the PS2 emulation story. Good memory on your, or someone else's part who pointed that out to you, with this info going back to 2013.

It's quite interesting to see an old kinds-sorta-rumor that was pretty much all but forgotten just play out, out of nowhere in this way. It's also interesting to see the "long-con" Sony's been playing with their idea investments all start to pan out around the same time..........sometimes it's just amazing to watch masters at work. And Sony these last couple years.......basically since Kaz took control of the whole show, not just the gaming side.......it's been like when I was a kid watching a Bob Ross masterpiece come together from a blank canvas.

I absolutely can not wait to see where gaming is at the end of this PS4 generation. There is like....... a paradigm shift about to happen in gaming, right in front of our eyes.

Are our seatbelts on?

[Eidolon]

Nice, can't wait to start seeing more PS2 titles pop up for PS4, and with trophy support.

[FoxyGotGame]

How Does PS2 Emulation Work On The PS4?

....Very well by the looks of it /

[SegaSaturn669]

My immediate thought with ps2 support was

PS3 supports PS1 (and ps2 but not universally)

and now

PS4 supports PS2

So if you own both, you're covered across 4 generations.

Now, I suspect PS Vita may obtain limited PS2 support as well.

[bluebenjamin]

We can hope so

[Eidolon]

Man, that'd be great(PS2 on Vita), but a phone of those spec would barely be able to handle PS1 games if at all, they would have to do some serious engineering, but it may be possible given it's lower level API.

[pwnsause_returns]

It depends though, if I am able to insert my ps2 disc in there, then it's a rap

[nitus10]

Could not agree more. I have over sixty PS2 games and it would be great to put a PS2 didk in and having the image installed on the PS4 disk to be played at my convenience.

I don't have any objections to Sony making digital image downloads available for a reasonable cost to those people who don't have that PS2 game and would like to play it.

What I will not do is pay for PS2 games that I already own and why should I when I still have my backwards compatible PS3.

Getting a PS4 that can also play PS2 games via disk and digital download is a great way of future proofing those games.

[StormLegend]

The trophy support is what got me hyped about playing these games again!

[nevin1]

I wonder if the trophy support is why Sony is looking to charge?

[_-EDMIX-_]

"Sony is looking to charge?" ? Link...

[Rookie_Monster]

EDMIX,

Nothing is revealed yet just this bit of information:

http://gematsu.com/2015/11/...
"When asked specifically whether that means disc-based PS2 emulation will also be supported, Sony would not comment."

Hope it is disc based also, if not, then digital version definitely would be charged. Just how these things work.

If it doesn't support using our old PS2 discs, it's a waste of time. Nobody should spend a dime on a game they already own. I have over 30 PS2 disc based games still.

[FullmetalRoyale]

Oh man, me too. I enjoying getting something new out of something I know like the back of my hand, and added trophies do that for me. Very glad to see it.

[bluebenjamin]

So what happen to all that we don't buy new systems to play old games talk people were doing when X1 announced bc support?DownVote if you must I dont give a sh@$!.2 sided double standard having azz fanboys

[kstuffs]

Look how positive this PS2 emulation is on n4g and in general. They once told the next gen consoles are for next gem games not old X360 and yet the PS2 is two gen old. Not only that, most likely, the games won't be free to those who already own the games.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

More like Xbox 360 is full with shooters. PS3 has an amazing variety of games

[UserNameIsNotTaken]

Sorry. I agreed by mistake.
Sorry not sorry

[SegaGamer]

There are a lot of fanboys on here but there are a lot of us that aren't. The one's that aren't fanboys love this is idea, and i am one of those people.

This kind of BC is even better though because the games look and perform better and they have trophy support. It's like adding something better to something that was already great in the first place.

[bluebenjamin]

To be honest some of you can run ps2 games already on your PC with enhanced textures and higher framerates.PCSX2 has been out for years and you don't even need a high end machine to runit.Hell I've been having a blast playing bloody roar 3 and 4 at 1080 p 60fps on an i3 cpu accompanied with an 860m which is midrange, not only that but dolphin runs well 2.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

That's what Xbox fanboys also said to counter Nintendo fanboys 2 years ago.

But you know what happened to that talk? It's somewhere in the past articles. Go look it yourself. Go attack those haters one by one and let us the real gamers enjoy this.

[IIFloodyII]

The same thing that happened to all the people who thought BC was the greatest thing ever and will single handily change the console war, by the looks of it.

When you learn people can have different opinions and want different things, it'll become clear.

[nitus10]

Backwards compatibility is always a welcome feature to any console, some will use it some won't, however it is only a system seller when it comes with a newly release console.

[vanity29]

Where are all the fanboys that made bc out like it would save consoles?

[Eiyuuou]

Is this a joke?

[uth11]

Not exactly a reaction to MS's announcement when PS2 emulation was revealed almost two years ago:

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[kstuffs]

It wasn't revealed according to the article. There's a "source" that they had at that time, but Sony did not reveal anything officially, except for PS3 would be on PS Now.

[uth11]

Might not have been official, but it's clear that they were working on it. They didn't just quick code this up after ms e3 announcement, which is what the article implied

[Becuzisaid]

Any indication this would work with the old game discs? Not really interested in rebuying and downloading.

[VforVideogames]

Its a subscription plan like psnow , another 19.99 a month or here's hope that its included on the current one.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Source?

[vanity29]

Lmao literally no info about this is out and you come up with that?

[FN4GM]

Needs to be included as free in the Plus subscription.

[IIFloodyII]

It needs to just be like PS Classics are on the PS3, PSP and Vita, maybe have some included with the Plus games every month like they used too.

[JackEffinBlack]

Let me enlighten a few of you guys on the difference between 'backwards compatability' and 'software emulation':

PS1 games on PS2: backwards compatibility
All PS1/PS2 games played on PS3 by using discs: backwards compatibility
GameCube games played on Wii: backwards compatibility
VirtualConsole games played on Wii: software emulation
PS1/PS2 games downloaded from PSN, regardless of PS3 version: software emulation
Xbox 360 games played on Xbox One: software emulation

The easiest, most sensible, and most common way for backwards compatibility of a previous game system is having the system hardware installed in the new system. When I had my PS3 slim, I downloaded Gunstar Heroes from the PSN. That wasn't 'Genesis Backwards Compatability', that was Sega emulating the original Genesis game and porting it to the PSN. If Microsoft was going for 'backwards compatability', they would've emulated the *Xbox 360 itself* and made that program a software update, and at least 90% of all Xbox 360 games would've been playable, immediately, and without asking for any publishers permission (it's their own full system they'd be emulating, not games). The early 80gb PS3's were doing this exact thing (emulated the PS2 console via system update).

I'm sorry guys, when SONY developers are asking 'what (specific) games do you want to play on PS4?' and the corporate guys making sure they use the words 'emulation' and not 'backwards compatability'...all signs point towards PS1/PS2 games via PS Now. I'd personally love to play my 250+ collection of PS1/PS2 disc games on PS4 with upgraded features; but realistically, the best we can hope for is if SONY were to let us play our PS1/PS2 discs *as that specific game is being added to PS Now*, through a monthly system update; I wouldn't hold my breath for that, though.

Just wanted to put things into a bit of perspective, guys...

P.S. HipHopGamer's latest video (I think it was an hour and 5 minutes long) states that a trusted inside source has revealed to him that the PS Now service will be the home for the emulated PS1/PS2 games.