PlayStation 2 Emulation Finally Arriving on PlayStation 4

Sony has officially confirmed that it is “utilising” PlayStation 2 emulation for the PlayStation 4, following the discovery that a number of re-released Star Wars games for PS4 were PS2 originals.

Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter were included as part of the Star Wars: Battlefront PS4 console bundle this week, in the form of a single PSN code, with the latter three games being familiar to PS2 owners. And, indeed, instead of remastered versions of Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, gamers were treated to emulated versions of the original PS2 games, without any kind of announcement from Sony at the time.

The initial absence of any formal announcement from Sony was strange considering that, when it revealed its PlayStation Now streaming platform back in January 2014, PS2 emulation was billed a big part of its backwards compatibility strategy. But now Sony has confirmed that PS2 emulation is indeed being used, and suggests that we should expect more in the future. “We are working on utilising PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,” Sony told Wired. “We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”