Ever since last year, Sony has been making us anticipate the imminent arrival of emulators for PlayStation 2 games on the PlayStation 4. Some even thought that Sony might have ditched the effort of bringing PS2 emulators on the PS4 since it has been a while since any news came regarding it. However, that changed recently as Sony has now confirmed that the company is working on PS2 emulation technology for the PS4.
Prior to that confirmation though, the existence of a PS2 emulation software in the PS4 has already been noticed by Digital Foundry after it tested three classic Star Wars games that were part of PS4 Star Wars: Battlefront Bundle. These titles include Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighther and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.
Digital Foundry found that, upon starting up the games, a system prompt shows up telling users that the “select” and “start” buttons are mapped to the left and right sides of the DualShock 4’s touch pad. Besides that, the PS2 logo also appears when the game was booted which gives an impression that the PS2 emulation might already be on the PS4.
Additionally, there is also an emulation in place for handling PS2 memory cards which is identical in nature to the PS2 emulator on PS3. It is also worth mentioning that the in-game button prompts in all these titles also relate to PS2 controller.
Meanwhile, the graphics on these classic Star Wars games are slightly better than their original PS2 counterparts. Among the changes in graphics that are visible include higher resolution, an upscaling of all 2D artwork and slightly improved 3D elements.
All in all, this comes as great news for gamers that may want to play their favourite PS2 games (when available) on the PS4. Chances are games like the Fatal Frame series and other classic favourites could be emulated soon for the PS4.
