PS2 to 3 and 4

[Kyle Nuva]

why didnt sony make it so the PS3 and 4 able to play ps2 games? the ps2 games were able to play ps1 game but needed a ps1 card to save game data, that and its own console not recognizing its own data is a serious flaw ITS THEIR CONSOLE but didnt allow to play older games? why? i mean my ps2 is hanging on a thread, the stupid thing cant read game disks i never had before or in awhile, i bought code lyoko and it wouldnt play, many tries later, it worked and ratchet and clank deadlock is doing the same, so i guess my ps2 is nearly done for.
some games play, others dont. ratchet wouldnt move at all by the game started. never have i seen a game behave like that before, menus are super delayed and he doesnt move. another time was when the batteries were dying that caused my payer to lag, super weird too but new batteries fixed that

[✨Saint✨]

I had the original PS2, which I gave away to a friend of mine, I have 3 PS2 Slims that can barely run FIFA without stuttering.
I have a huge collection of original PS2 games, with all the money I have spent in parts, new PS2's, I almost gave up and I was planning to sell my collection until I discovered I can just play those games on my PC.

[Meatloaf Cocktail]

Why make the consoles backwards compatible when you can just push a streaming service and get people to pay for it.

I present - PS Now (which is now just a higher tier of PS+)


Yep, it's awful but it's what we got with Sony (until they finally realize Game Pass is ruining them on PC).

[_I_]

some launch ps3 models were backwards compatible with ps2, they had the ps2 hardware in them

but lots of ps2 games are on the ps store for digital download and modded to run on them

[Omega]

The original PS3 actually had a secondary emotion engine processor, this was the CPU used by the PS2, it used this to play PS2 games. This is part of the reason the PS3 was so insanely expensive.

PS2 emulation hadn't matured enough yet around the time Sony stopped adding the Emotion Engine CPU to their PS3s. This was later patched in to allow the PS3 to emulate PS1/2 games bought on the PS Store.

The later models of the PS3 were able to run PS1 games from the disk but not PS2 games. I am unsure what the reasoning for this was, my guess is that the PS3's BD player couldn't do a DRM check on the PS2 disks and since these games were still last-gen Sony decided to not allow potential copies of games to be run on the PS3.

The reason PS2 emulation is not available on the PS4 is most likely just Sony being greedy, they couldn't be bothered because it only costs them money to add this functionality.


The best thing you can do is to rip your PS2 games and run them under an emulator on your PC. I suggest ripping them anyhow, just in case the disks ever die.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

backing up your ps stuff is great, computer can even upscale stuff

[Snow]

Dump your PS2 BIOS, dump your games, play them on PCSX2.

[_I_]

there are also pull the saves from the ps2 memory cards

[Adam Beckett]

The most comprehensive answer to the above question would be: Japan?

There is a monolithic corporate culture in Japan that ignored the input of game developers - the guys in the trenches. They also ignored the wishes of customers, thinking, they themselves - Sony (or Nintendo, etc) - 'know best', what consumers want.

The PS2 was in itself a highly obscure piece of hardware,

https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/playstation-2/

legendary for being hard to develop for:

https://www.denofgeek.com/games/playstation-2-difficult-to-develop-retrospective-legacy/

But then, out of nowhere, Sony Playstation collaborated with IBM and created and EVEN MORE OBSCURE hardware platform, based around their CELL chip.

https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/playstation-3/

No PS2 game would ever run on a PS3 within this new hardware. It just was not possible, since both hardware platforms where completely different. It would be like trying to squeeze an elephant into a Yugo, thinking it can drive the car, even if it did not fit into it, nor has the brains.

Hence - see replies above - the early PS3's had a PS2 chip inside them, to allow PS2 games to run.

But, then - again "Japan" - Sony decided to drop that support. Just the same way they suddenly became fearful of their own support of LinuxOS running on PS3 (which was a huge success, btw with HPC)

https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html

While the PS3 was certainly very innovative, it was nothing any game developer has worked on ever before. There was an outcry in the game developer community around the world which eventually led Sony CEO's to rethink their approach to hardware development.

They put Mark Cerny in charge to ask around and help develop the next Sony Playstation, this time WITH the input of game developers and studios, acknowledging their wishes, how to make game development easier for developers.

The result - the PS4 - was based on another COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURE than before that than before that. This time though, it was a familiar field: the x86-architecture. Basically, the stuff that runs on every "Personal Computer" - aka PC.

So - to sum things up - the PS4/5 would have to emulate PS3 and PS2 games. The PS3 would have to emulate PS2 games. There is no easy path - nor any compatibility of any kind - from "PS2 to PS3 to PS4(5)."

Basically, you cannot squeeze an apple into an orange into a lemon. All different things.

And then, there is the other elephant in the room: Sony Playstation wants you to re-buy your games, not use your old disks. This was always a part of their business, just like with Nintendo.

"Backward-compatibility" is a phrase every console maker (or game studio) hates to hear. It cuts into their future profits. It took a competitor (Microsoft) to see this weakness in Sony's strategy and pounce on it with their own strategy ("we can expand our player base, if we lure them in with backward-compatibility"). A 'small loss' of revenue in the short term, but a big win of player base and future profits. THAT was the time, when Sony Playstation started to take 'backwards-compatibility' more seriously.

Today, it is just way easier (and cheaper!) to run those PS2 and PS3 games from their server farms and deliver them to players as a cloud gaming, streaming service, instead having to install software emulators on the client side (which is still how PS2 games run on later/slim PS3).

[Bad 💀 Motha]

The new PS subscription on PS4/PS5 allows those consoles to run approx 750+ PS2 and PS3 games on them. What was PS-NOW for PS4 and PC for a few years. is no longer. Now you get all that included with PS-PLUS.

[A&A]

PS 2 and 3 are using RISC cpus while PS 4 have CISC one, so it is impossible

PS 3 (newer models) can't run PS 2 games too. The cell CPU is different than Intel, AMD, ARM ones and you have different hardware instructions, you have a core which is controling other 8 SPEs cores.

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

You could only backwards play on PS3 if you had the model that came with the emotion engine built into the unit.

Basically it was a ps2 and ps3 in one unit.

[Omega]

Publicado originalmente por A&A:

PS 2 and 3 are using RISC cpus while PS 4 have CISC one, so it is impossible

PS 3 (newer models) can't run PS 2 games too. The cell CPU is different than Intel, AMD, ARM ones and you have different hardware instructions, you have a core which is controling other 8 SPEs cores.

Emulation and translation layers can both be used to run software on non-native systems, irrelevant of the achirectural differences.

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

Emulation and translation layers can both be used to run software on non-native systems, irrelevant of the achirectural differences.

Yes you can, but you can integrate it and that will cost money, who wants to pay anyway? So much money for such a small use case.

What about the OSs? PS 2 was running on nothing while PS 3 was on FreeBSD, but as l know, the games were running on VM. It is not that easy as you think.

[Haruspex]

PS2 could play PS1 games.

PS3 could play PS2 and PS1 games. Later they removed the ability to play PS2 games to save costs, but PS1 compatibility was still there.

PS4 was a departure. It could only play PS4 games. If you wanted to play earlier titles, you had to repurchase "classics" as digital games.

PS5 plays PS4 games.

Meanwhile there's the PC. PC is PC, and there's nothing stopping me from playing the entire 40+ year back catalog of PC games on my modern computer. (Not to mention the entire back catalog of most console games.)

Consoles come and go but PC is forever.

[Omega]

Publicado originalmente por A&A:

Publicado originalmente por Omega:

Emulation and translation layers can both be used to run software on non-native systems, irrelevant of the achirectural differences.

Yes you can, but you can integrate it and that will cost money, who wants to pay anyway? So much money for such a small use case.

What about the OSs? PS 2 was running on nothing while PS 3 was on FreeBSD, but as l know, the games were running on VM. It is not that easy as you think.

These emulators already exist. Sony showed they would gladly use these open source emulators with the Playstation Classic console.

Most of these have already been ported to these consoles. All Sony has to do is loosen the chains.