After several reports started surfacing about Microsoft's plan to make their eighth-gen console backwards compatible to the Xbox 360, fans and gamers have expected Sony's PlayStation to follow suit. The hype even grew stronger as the PlayStation maker began to tease backwards compatibility when it first sent out surveys to a couple of PlayStation 4 owners. However, the rumors were quickly shut down after Sony said that it plans on focusing on a number of games due for release soon. Now, it seems that the Japanese tech giant has confirmed that it is working on bringing PlayStation 2 titles to its current platform.
The news started circulating when Sony and Electronic Arts released a Star Wars: Battlefront PlayStation 4 bundle that comes with Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars Racer: Revenge and Super Star Wars--titles that were present back in the golden PlayStation 2 era, save for Super Star Wars that made its way first into the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Digital Foundry first spotted the clues that suggested PlayStation backwards compatibility to the PlayStation 4. According to them, the PlayStation 2's Start and Select Buttons have been suitably mapped to either side of the DualShock 4'S touchpad, indicating that it's something that only Sony is capable of.
Furthermore, there's a PlayStation 2 Logo that comes from the onset whenever gamers start-up the Star Wars titles that came with the bundle. There's also an emulation system in place to give way for saving games. Moreover, in-game button prompts are similar to PlayStation 2's DualShock 2, giving the idea that the titles aren't remastered versions, but are rather locally emulated into the PlayStation 4.
In an email sent to WIRED, Sony had confirmed that it is, indeed bringing PlayStation 2 emulation to the PlayStation 4. "We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation," a Sony representative told WIRED.
