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Sony is adding PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility to the PS4

Sony and Electronic Arts have a Star Wars: Battlefront PlayStation 4 bundle available right now and with it comes a quartet of games from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away (or at least as far as the PlayStation 2 era). Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars Racer: Revenge and Super Star Wars come with the bundle via a single download code, and all bar one appear to be the original PS2 games running in emulation. The discovery comes via the tech-minded folks over at Digital Foundry who spotted a number of clues suggesting backwards compatibility had finally arrived. The evidence is in the details. As DF noted, the sophomore console's select and start buttons have been mapped to either side of the DualShock 4's touchpad, something only Sony, rather than Lucasarts Interactive can do.

Oh, and there's an even bigger giveaway: a PS2 logo appears when you launch each game. Need more proof? "All in-game button prompts" are relative to the DualShock 2 which means these aren't remastered versions of the games. So, local emulation of classic games so long as you download them, and there's no monthly subscription fee. Sounds familiar, right? We're expecting a Star Wars-themed package in the mail from EA tomorrow so perhaps this is what that is. We've reached out to Sony for more information about the backwards compatibility and will update this post should the company respond.

Update: And just like that, Sony has confirmed backwards compatibility is coming, telling Wired: "We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation ... We have nothing further to comment at this point in time."