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It's been a long time since we first reported that classic PS1 and PS2 titles were heading to PlayStation 4, running under emulation. It's been so long in fact, that we began to wonder whether Sony had shelved the project. The company originally informed developers of the existence of the emulator at the same time it briefed them on the planned rollout for the PlayStation Now cloud service, way back in January 2014. Since then, the only hints at its existence came in the form of some telling PEGI game ratings, along with some sightings of PS2 classics appearing in shared media lists during the PS4 firmware 3.0 beta phase.

As it happens, the PlayStation 4's PS2 emulator is now available, released with no fanfare whatsoever. A new PS4 Star Wars bundle has been released, including a package of four 'classic' franchise titles: Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Racer Revenge and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. All four titles are supplied via a single PSN code, as opposed to a physical disc included with the hardware. You'll note that three of those titles hail from the PlayStation 2 era, and after we downloaded them, it became clear that all of them are running under emulation.

How can we tell? First of all, a system prompt appears telling you that select and start buttons are mapped to the left and right sides of the Dual Shock 4's trackpad. Third party game developers cannot access the system OS in this manner. Secondly, just like the PS2 emulator on PlayStation 3, there's an emulation system in place for handling PS2 memory cards. Thirdly, the classic PlayStation 2 logo appears in all of its poorly upscaled glory when you boot each title. And finally, all in-game button prompts relate to the PS2's controller - nothing has been changed at all, effectively ruling out a remaster.

The arrival of PS2 emulation on the PlayStation 4 is a big deal - we reached out to Sony and await comment, but it is a little odd that a lovely piece of technology that's bound to excite a lot of interest has slipped out without any kind of fanfare. The PlayStation 2 is one of the classic pieces of console hardware, and the ability to access that back catalogue with enhanced visuals is a tantalising proposition. And with that in mind, it's actually a bit of a shame that the emulator has launched with a trio of mediocre titles, as opposed to a sparkling line-up of the console's greatest hits.

More here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-hands-on-with-ps4-playstation2-emulation

they will probably keep it behind the psnow pay wall

Why? That would require setting up brand new servers that could play and stream PS2 games, as opposed to just releasing PSClassics on the PS Store like last gen.

In what world is PS Now a paywall? It's a service to stream video games on multiple devices...

This seems like normal software emulation.

Yes but can you put your PS2 discs in to trigger a free download? If we all have to BUY these titles, then it's only a half win imo. I'm not going to buy games twice for convenience sake. I'll just stick them in my PS2.

Also, any and all PS1/PS2 purchases made on my account when I had a PS3 should be free when they are on the store. Anything less is criminal imo.

lol and people still doubt this feature as insignificant, just keep your PS2 they say...
They need to make an universal emulator, it would be a huge boon for PlayStation if every ps2 game could even run half like this and of course CD based too.

PS2 game going from 480i 30fps to 1292x896 60fps, this is a huge imrpovement 

I cannot see how Sony can give PS2 owners a shortcut here. As much as it would be great for PS2 owners (who happen to still own copies of their beloved games) to be able to just stick in a disc and play, I don't see it as a feasible solution. Perhaps I'm wrong on that, I don't know, but IF this IS TRUE emulation and not only on a game by game basis, we could be looking at a treasure trove of memories that would resonate with the older demographic ... ME!

I shouldn't be like this. I should be watching news at 10, complaining at the neighbour's kids or telling people how 'things have changed since my day' but I'm not ... I'm still a kid in a 57 year old body enjoying the memories. Life can be fun. Video games prove that.

Well you could play PS1 Classic titles on Vita if you bought them on PS3 (and vice versa). Why are people always so quick to assume the worst possible outcome?

Here's to hoping that we get disc based emulation that supports >95% of titles at launch... similar to PS3's PS2 emulation (albeit through brute force this time as opposed to hardware emulation).

Very, very unlikely.