Sony is working on bringing PS2 games to the PlayStation 4

[HEXUS]

And already seems to have released some as part of the PS4 Star Wars bundle.

Read more.

[Ferral]

I should hope that games you have bought previously from PSN will become available to download and play on PS4, that would be a great start.

There was another article on Eurogamer at the beginning of the week stating that the classic SNES Super Star Wars is landing this week on PS4 available via PSN.

[ChewieJ]

IF MS and Sony are going to allow the use of older games, ie backwards compatible, they need to do it for all their games, not just select few.

Otherwise, whats the point in getting the next gen gear if you still want to play your older stuff and can't except by playing it on the same old machine.

Its not rocket science.

It might even pull people away from playing on PC's where for the majority, they still can play they favourite old games without having to *buy it again* or pay a fee.

[Plasmastorm]

Just let me use my PS3 PSN games on the PS4 so I can ditch my ps3 already !
With the exception of 'The last of us' the rest are all ps1 games like final fantasy anyway.

[Numenor]

As soon as I read about Microsoft's backward compatibility initiative, I became quietly hopeful that Sony would follow suit. I'm confident that it is not only possible, but easy to perform software emulation of PS2 games on a system as advanced as the PS4, and would love to be able to put the PS2 in the attic some time soon... whether it happens - and HOW it happens - are anything but clear right now though.

[ceejays88]

following in the footsteps of xbox

[simonpreston]

"Backwards compatibility functionality offered by Sony's previous PlayStation 3 (PS3) console is complicated, as earlier PS3 console hardware included custom chips that allowed PS2/PS1 games to be played natively. Sony later ended such support with the introduction of the first 'slim' PS3s. However Sony distributed some classic PlayStation titles digitally (for a fee) which were modified to work on the PS3."

Not quite. It was only the very early (60GB) fat PS3s that had the native chips in them (UK at least). The later fat 20GB and 80GB models had these removed, as did the later slim ones.

I'm not sure the PS4 could quite do 100% software emulation of PS2 hardware. Not with the kind of extra things you'd like to see, such as upscaled graphics so it looks better on large HD screens. It's a very complex system. The next gen of consoles should be able to, no problem. Funnily enough, a PS4 is probably easier to emulate than a PS2 (on PC type hardware).

:nerd:

[Doubtful]

Yeah, sounds great, until they announce you can only buy the classics through the PlayStation store or rent them from their service.

[Razor Time]

I like this news, this will save me dragging out my old ps2.

[shaithis]

They could just offer PCSX2 some money for their code!

Hell, I wonder if Microsoft could get away with a PS2 emulator........

[Smudger]

Not sure how useful this would be. PS2 offered the ability to play PS1 games, once I had some PS2 games, I never looked at the PS1 games again. PS3 playing PS2 games? I missed the boat on that one, but again, didn't really look at my PS2 games once the PS3 was in. I did notice some classic PS1 titles appearing in the PS shop though.
So no, not PS following XBox, both platforms have offered some sort of backwards-compatibility since their inception.

[kellyharding]

Sony offering PS2 backwards compatibility (in whatever form it takes) isn't anywhere near the same as MS offering 360 backward compatibility really. Wonder if Sony would want to hurt Playstation Now subscription income by going back on that and offering PS3 support.

It is sadly the publishers who limit what titles get made available on MS's backwards compatibility, but it works rather well I've found.