Sony enabled PS2 backwards compatibility for the PS4 without telling anyone

From Tech Radar Yesterday:

Microsoft may have gotten all the attention this week for its latest update to theXbox One that enables backwards compatibility for over 100 Xbox 360 titles, but it seems Sony might have done the same thing for the PS4 with less celebration.

Eurogamer recently received the Special Edition Star Wars Battlefront PS4, along with the code for four downloadable titles: Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Racer Revenge and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

When the team went to boot up the three old PS2 titles, something strange happened. An old PS2 logo came up in "all of its poorly upscaled glory when you boot each title." Eurogamer reports that there was also a system in place to emulate a PS2 memory card to save your spot in the games and a prompt at the start of the emulation that told them that the select and start buttons can be accessed by pressing on the left and right of the DualShock 4's trackpad.

If these titles were ports of the original games, there'd be no need for the prompts or memory card emulation: the games would work natively with the PS4 software, leading the team to believe that what they were looking at was the first titles to receive backwards compatibility on the PS4.

What's even more interesting about the possible emulator is that it upscaled the titles from their original resolutions - 512 x 448 and 640 x 448 - to a new native resolution on the PS4 of 1292 x 896.

The fact that a PS1 and PS2 emulator was in development is no secret. Sony made it abundantly clear at the launch of PlayStation Now that it wanted to bring the entire collection of past games onto its latest powerhouse, but it has been mysteriously tight-lipped about the development of the software ever since.

The PS2 had 1,850 titles, one of the largest collections of any game console. If Sony can work some magic, the PS4's relatively meager library could quadruple in size overnight.

We've asked Sony to confirm the emulator's existence out in the wild, as well as for its future plans for releasing PS2 content or (crossing our fingers) allowing the system to play PS2 discs.

Update: A Sony representative sent us the following statement in response to our query about the emulator's existence:

"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 point in time.

So, we know the PS4 has the ability to play PS2 games. We don't know how long it's had the capability or how many titles Sony will release, but it exists. We'll continue to investigate.

 

So what? It's just to sell more ps2 classics. It won't do disc owners any good.

 

they could give us on disk emulation, just like with PCSX2 which support on disk emulation

 

I felt this could lead to discs being used and was a story people may find interesting. Sorry if I wasted anyone's time.

 

It's something I'm interested in at least. But I would prefer ps3.

 

You didn't waste anybody's time. Some people need to not be so rude. Thanks for sharing.

 

Imo they wrapped those games with the emulator, I don't think it is actually in ps4's os. Cool nonetheless.

 

I feel like it's a middle finger to microsoft. We'll see how this pans out. MY PS2 is busted so if I can play my games on a PS4 that's great. I spend a great deal of time playing PS1 games on PS3.

Word is people are buying up PS2 games over this rumor. I've only heard it from like one person.

 

There's a small part of me that hopes CD emulation doesn't happen right away, since right now with a few exceptions (Kuon, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Rule of Rose etc.) most PS2 collecting is pretty inexpensive. I feel like (maybe i'm wrong) now's a good time to stock up on PS2 and original Xbox games you want before they go up in price. Not sure if being able to play these old games on a PS4 would create a big enough demand to drive prices up, or things would stay the same and it would mostly just be the guys who already the the games playing them on their newer machines.

 

What is good is that the emulator upscales and adds anti aliasing to the ps2 games... I think Valkyrie Profile Silmeria would look super crisp!

I guess Sony is at a big choice... Get money from selling overpriced ps2 games or allowing to play ps2 discs... I think it'll be DL and pay only but man i would love some upscaled FFX, Xenosaga, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean, Gran Turismo 4 etc etc from my PS2 DVDs... I'm drooling at the thought of it!

 

In my opinion (just an opinion) much of what happens in the future is up to Microsoft's new program.

If making the XBox one backward compatable drives up console sales, and if the PS2 digital sales go poorly..then I think disc emulation is on its way...if however the reverse is true? well, get ready for LOTS of digital re-releases and probably never seeing the PS4 backward compatible.

again, just my opinion.

 

Oh the hopes you place in me....... Please sony please don't drop my hopes in acid.
I would think it would be an incentative for certain games to be reprinted and everything else would rise in price. But you never know......

 

The problem here is that that's actually impossible. The PS4 cannot emulate PS3 games due to the CPU. The PS4 CPU is much weaker than the PS3's Cell CPU.

In order for it to have been backwards compatible, they would have had to either 1) use the Cell again or 2) Make an improved version of the Cell to take hold of better graphics AND play PS3 games.

-Small rant-
However, there's only one thing I'm genuinely bothered by on the PS4 and that's no PS1 support unless its via PSN. Like of all the things that's the ONLY one I have a problem with. Hell if they put time into it they could definitely make it look amazing. For example, take these 3 images. One is the PS1 being rendered by PS3 (fullscreen, no smoothing) the other is the PS1 with normal aspect ratio (still no smoothing) and the last is PSP (modded PSP HD remaster, visually better looking because of the retooling internally not because of the modding). And obviously, the quality you get between these 2 are very obvious, but let's say the PS4 added support for PS1 titles and it was the quality you can get via PC emulation (as far as visuals go). It has the power, it has the potential, all the games could look amazing if Sony worked on it.

Spoiler: Angry post pictures to not destroy the thread with images

 

I don't see PS2 and XBOX games going up anytime soon. Hell most PS1 games are still pretty cheap.

 

I doubt this will be purely disc based emulation, probably EVER..
2 reasons PS2 compatibility was removed from the PS3;

1> Cost, extra hardware in both versions of the launch PS3 (the bog standard, half-arsed english build, with it's pseudo hardware compatibility AND the OMG wet your pants WTF why are these things so expensive, unicorn farts enabled, fully hardware compatible, superior japanese launch PS3[with sprinkles!])

2> Security, this is a big one

Number 2 is the main one sony cares about, probably the same for microsoft but maybe not as they are working with 360 games, something I'd assume much harder to emulate..

 

they just put it there and forgot to tell anyone because last time they put it in (ps3) and then removed it a shitstorm was raised

 

The question is, why would they do it? They don't make money off second hand physical PS1 games, but they do make money from PSone Classics they sell through PSN. I doubt many people would be swayed to buy a PS4 if it played PS1 games anyway. As you've said, PC can emulate and upscale PS1 games quite well.

While I would love to have my PS4 play PS1 games, I just don't see it being a priority for Sony.

 

It's funny. I purchased megaman legends 1 from PSN. No sweat it works. What I AM bothered by is the quality of how it displays.

Compared to the PS1 version the PSN version looks fuzzy like its upscaled 480p with their smoothing turned on. The quality drop is not acceptable IMO for a PS1 classic if the real PS1 disc can be rendered better than the digital version.

 

I agree. Final Fantasy VIII looks pretty bad as well. Silent Hill on a PS3 versus a nice PC is night and day.


It practically looks like a Dreamcast game. While it's quite possible, it just doesn't mean much to Sony.

 

The PS1 and PS2 games on PS3 are only upscaled in resolution. It's just a matter of stretching the output pixel count.

Seems like the PS2 emulator on the PS4 actually is more like a PS2 emulator on PC, as it renders the polygons with some sort of post processing AA, has better texture filtering, v-sync, double buffering and even added trophy support.

Also, we have no idea how many optimizations are necessary. I doubt there's a one emulator config for lots of games. They probably have to tweak it game by game.