PS4 Backwards Compatibility - Confirmed

November 20, 2015

On Thursday evening, Sony confirmed to Wired, an American magazine, that they are -

working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,

- Sony representative in an email to Wired, In light of the new Star Wars Bundle available on the Playstation store

It also seems that they won't be ports of the older PS2 games, but instead will run on proprietary emulation software; there is not yet clear indication as to whether games will be available through the digital store only, or whether owners can use their old physical copies, as Sony hasn't commented on what their intentions are.

Though, there is already games available for the PS4 that were original PS2 games - the Star Wars: Battlefront bundle that was released in Wednesday's digital store update:

As DigitalFoundry and Eurogamer pointed out earlier this month, the recently-released Star Wars: Battlefront bundle for the PS4 includes three Star Wars PS2 games that appear to be emulated, rather than ported, to the newer system. There are numerous clues suggesting that this is the case, including the appearance of the classic PlayStation 2 logo before the games load; the inclusion of an emulation system for memory cards; and the automatic mapping of old controller buttons on to the new Dual Shock 4. The games also receive a pretty impressive resolution boost, as DigitalFoundry shows in this informative video:

What does this mean for PS4 players? Well, for start, you can now enjoy three Star Wars PS2 games (yes, they're available right now), and hopefully in the future more of your memories from the PS2 at improved resolutions.

Though, there's a chance the emulation feature will only be available to PSN users, as it was on the PS4.

Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/20/9768266/ps4-ps2-emulation

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/playstation-2-emulation-coming-to-ps4-sony-confirms/