Coming in under almost everyone’s radar, Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 can now emulate PlayStation 2 games, starting with a Star Wars collection inside a PS4/Star Wars: Battlefront bundle.
If you were to go to a brick-and-mortar store right now to buy a PlayStation 4, you would be presented with a wide variety of options for bundles and variants and so forth. One of those options would be, naturally, a bundle that includes Star Wars: Battlefront, one of the most hotly anticipated games of the year. But what you might be surprised to learn is that the Star Wars: Battlefront PS4 bundle doesn’t just include Battlefront – it also includes a selection of classic Star Wars games. Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter are all included in the bundle.
However, the latter three games are more than just re-releases of past Star Wars games – they, in the most stealthily revealed bit of news of the year, are actually the first examples of the PS4 running a PS2 emulator.
WIRED cracked the story earlier two days ago – Sony has covertly begun releasing PS2 games for the PS4 via emulation technology that recreates the PS2 environment. This is fairly similar to what Microsoft announced at E3 earlier this year for the Xbox One, except not announced in any official capacity.
“We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation. We have nothing further to comment at this time,” said the Sony representative WIRED corresponded with.
Eurogamer and Digital Foundry’s tests of the emulation technology via the three Star Wars games in the Battlefront PS4 bundle found interesting results in regards to framerate and screen tearing. The short version: the PS4’s emulation tech is very impressive, with potential for locked 60fps gaming on future PS2 titles if the extra GPU power could be found.
With such potential, Sony’s decision to bury this news in a PS4 bundle alongside Star Wars: Battlefront is even more baffling. One of the most beloved consoles in gaming history, combined with Sony’s currently trailing backwards compatibility system, should make this a guaranteed PR home run. What reasons they have are beyond us.
No future information on PlayStation 2 emulation on the PlayStation 4 is available.
