Report: PS4 to Support PS1/PS2 Games Via Emulation

For many gamers, backwards compatibility is important. After all, it’s tough to keep four generations of hardware hooked up to the TV.

Therefore, if you’re a PlayStation 4 owner, you’ll be happy with this news: According to a Digital Foundry report, Sony’s new console will not only support PS3 games via the upcoming cloud service, it’ll also support PS1 and PS2 titles. The latter will be handled by standard emulation.

The cool part is that the local emulation will produce high-definition improvements. The emulation currently available on the PS3 doesn’t offer this feature, if you didn’t know. Internally, the PS3’s firmware contains emulators for PS1, PS2 and PSP, while the Vita can handle both PS1 and Vita titles. Given the history, shouldn’t we expect the PS4 to be even more capable?

The report claims that the same internal emulator found in the PS3 is scheduled to hit the PS4. Also:

“…we understand that Sony is actively pursuing the ability for older titles to run without the blurry upscaling seen on PS3, suggesting that native HD resolutions are being targeted. Assuming this intention carries through to final code, we’ll be seeing an effect similar to the resolution scaling seen on unofficial PC emulation of Sony’s consoles, as well as a great many of the ‘HD remasters’ we saw on PS3 – where original assets were rendered at a higher resolution, often without any actual remastering at all.”

When all this technology is in place, we’ll have access to tons of PlayStation titles!