Could Backwards Compatibility Be Coming To PS4?
At first, there was no backwards compatibility in the current generation of game consoles, with the exception of Wii U. Then, suddenly, that changed: Microsoft announced they had found a way to get some XBox 360 games running on the XBox One. Sony reacted with, “That’s nice, but it’s not necessary and we don’t need anything like it.” Seems like they do. Rising sales of their competitor’s console have made Sony blink. They just admitted to Wired magazine that they’re working on PS2 emulation now.
“We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation,” they said, leaving it at that. “We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”
The last time Sony sold a console that played PS2 discs was the Playstation 3 in its first two years on the market, back when they were under the delusion people would pay $600 for one. When it became clear the price had to be reduced or they would lose the race that gen (and they did), one of the chips they threw out was the Emotion Engine required to make PS2 games run. They tried an emulated version for a couple months, but it wasn’t working on PS3 hardware and they had to drop the feature entirely.
I own one of these BC PS3s and up to now I’ve been treating it like a Faberge egg. I never keep it on longer than an hour at a time and I added a fan attachment to avoid overheating (that I suspect doesn’t work anyway). It is only turned on for PS2 purposes — I bought a SECOND PS3 to play The Last Of Us and other more current games. Yes, they break that easily.
I take every precaution possible to preserve the privilege of playing my PS2 discs with an HDMI connection. It is either this or breaking out the component cables and having to put up with a very fuzzy-looking Dark Cloud 2. It would be very nice to not have to do this anymore, assuming insert-the-disc-and-go BC is what Sony is working on. Given the wording, they could have also meant “resell our PS2 library at $10 a pop.” Clearer details are undoubtedly in our future.
As for the PS3, don’t look for emulation of THAT console any time soon. Like I said, it was poorly built.