Sony has gone ahead and done it. In what will presumably be their answer to Microsoft’s Game Pass offering, they have confirmed that from now on, you will be able to download PS4 and PS2 games available on the PS Now service to your console and play them locally (in addition to streaming them, if you’re so inclined).

You’ll be able to do this for as long as you maintain a subscription; this will apply to PS2 games that were re-released on PS4 via the PS2 Classics banner, and PS4 games, but not PS3 games (since emulation of PS3 is extremely complex, and presumably not something the PS4 can handle natively)- for those, you will need to stream.

Your save file from streaming will transfer over to your console as long as you have PS Plus, but, more interestingly, you still won’t need PS Plus to play PS Now games online, even if you are playing them locally- which makes this a very appealing proposition to a lot of people, I imagine.

PS Now has a bigger library than Game Pass, so Sony is off to a good start here; now to see if they will eventually start releasing their major releases on PS Now day and date like Microsoft does with Game Pass.

Looks like Sony is set on making PlayStation Now the one stop solution for access to the PlayStation library across generations. The service, which already offers users access to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 games, will also be adding select PlayStation 2 Classics (from the lineup available on PS4, not PS3) to the catalog starting this month.

Dark Cloud, Level 5’s beloved JRPG for PS2, is among the PS2 Classics that will be joining the lineup of PS Now games. PS Now games, as I am sure you know, are streamed over the internet, and can be played on PS3, PS4, and select Xperia phones and Bravia TVs. It’s… not the best solution for backward compatibility, I can tell you that.

The full lineup of games joining the PS Now catalog this month is available below. Hopefully, this rejuvenates Sony’s initiative to get PS2 games up and running on PS4 natively via PS Classics, too.

• Ape Escape 2
• Dark Cloud 2
• Hot Shots Tennis
• Limbo
• Metal Slug 3
• Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics
• Sine Mora EX
• Siren
• The Last Blade 2

Naughty Dog’s other iconic platforming series Jak and Daxter will be returning on the PlayStation 4 via PS2 classics. As per PlayStation US Blog, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II and Jak 3 will be heading to the PS4 via digital download on the PlayStation Store this year.

That’s not all though. Jak X: Combat Racing, the vehicular combat title in the franchise, will also be available as a PS2 classic. While it won’t have online multiplayer support, you can still take the fight to friends in split-screen mode.

All of the Jak and Daxter PS2 classics will be up-rendered to 1080p resolution and support Trophies. SharePlay, Remote Play and Activity Feeds will also be supported.

For those interested in playing the first three titles with better visuals, it’s also worth checking out the Jak and Daxter Collection on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. What are your thoughts on the PS2 versions coming to PS4? Let us know in the comments.

This week’s sales and deals for PlayStation owners should end up appealing to those who want to build up a collection pf PS2 games on their systems, but don’t feel like spending money on these older games- either because they feel like the PS2 games are overpriced, or, as is more likely, Sony’s not honoring digital continuity of PS2 Classics purchases between PS3 and PS4 just left a sour taste in their mouth.

For those people, this sale will allow them a chance to look into buying some of the PS2 Classics available now, without spending much additional money. Oh, and there are some pretty good Dead Silver published games available on the cheap, too. You can find the full list of the games on sale below:

PS Plus Specials

GTA Trilogy – $17.49
GTA 3 – $8.99
GTA: San Andreas – $8.99
GTA: Vice City – $8.99
Twisted Metal Black – $4.99
PaRappa The Rapper 2 -$4.99
Max Payne – $8.99
Dark Cloud – $7.49
Dark Cloud 2 – $7.49
Star Wars Bounty Hunter – $4.99
Star Wars Jedi Starfighter – $4.99
Star Wars Racer Revenge – $4.99
Rogue Galaxy – $7.49
Bully – $8.99
FantaVision – $4.99
Manhunt – $8.99
Arc The Lad – Twilight of the Spirits – $7.49
Okage: Shadow King – $6.99
War of the Monsters – $4.99

Deep Silver Sale

DiRT Rally – $44.99
Saints Row / Metro Double Pack – $16.49
Risen 3 – Enhanced Edition – $9.99
Metro Redux – $8.99
Saints Row IV National Treasure Edition (PS3) – $7.49
Saints Row Re-Elected & Gat Out of Hell – $11.99
This War of Mine: The Little Ones – $19.49
Metro 2033 Redux – $5.99
Metro: Last Light Redux – $5.99
Saints Row IV (PS3) – $5.99
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell (PS3/PS4) – $5.99

Which games will you be getting? Let us know in the comments section below!

Remedy’s Quantum Break may be the game that is making waves the world over right now, but their very first project, the game that put them on the map, the game that made time bending gameplay cool before Quantum Break was ever a thing, Max Payne, still holds up as one of the seminal third person shooters- and it will soon be made available to PS4 owners to play.

That’s right, the very first Max Payne game is coming to PS4 as a PS2 Classic. As with all PS2 Classics, you can expect its graphics to be upscaled to 1080p, as well as support for Trophies (and other PS4 OS features, such as sharing). Beyond that, this is going to be the same game you remember from over a decade ago.

You can expect this new game to be priced along the same lines as all other PS2 Classics- which means it could be as low as $10, but that it will almost certainly be $15. Will you get it at that price? Let us know in the comments below.

Last year, Microsoft announced that they would be enabling backwards compatibility on Xbox one for Xbox 360 games. It was a great move – backwards compatibility is generally not a feature that is much used, and is most useful at the beginning of a console generation, to enable a smooth transition between systems – but it represented the new, consumer friendly way that Microsoft was doing things, in stark contrast with how Sony was handling legacy content on the PS4 with PS Now.

Eventually, Sony announced PS2 Classics on the PS4 too, but they handled it terribly- none of your already purchased legacy content in the guise of PS2 Classics on PS3 carried over to the PS4- put simply, you would have to repurchase GTA: San Andreas if you wanted to play it on the PS4. It was a crying shame, and it was an important area where Microsoft definitely acted more ‘for the gamers’ than Sony did.

Obviously, we as customers were unhappy about it- but how do developers feel about the differences in Microsoft and Sony’s strategy? GamingBolt recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Flying Wild Hog, the folks who brought us Shadow Warrior, and who are currently working on Hard Reset Redux, and we asked them what their take on the differences in approach to backwards compatibility was.

“We love the idea of backwards compatibility and we wish PS4 would have it the same way Xbox One does,” a representative from Flying Wild Hog said to GamingBolt. “There are a ton of old PlayStation games we would really like to come back to.”

Indeed, there is no real reason why continuity could not have been achieved between legacy content offered on PS3, and the legacy content offered on the PS4. No reason, that is, other than Sony wanting to maximize on revenue.

Sony will be bringing the PS2 classic Parappa The Rapper 2 to the PS4 using the console’s PS2 Classics emulation function next week. The game launches on the PSN Store in North America on December 15, US PlayStation Blogcast has revealed.

Though Sony did not confirm the price for the game yet, we can probably expect it to be $10, as all first party PS2 games have been priced on the service so far. Sony did confirm, however, that the game will be launching with Trophy support, 1080p resolutions, as well as screenshot and video capturing and sharing. Although that all was pretty much a given, since those are all features of PS2 Classics on the PS4- and one way that Sony is justifying charging players for PS2 games, which they may already have bought as part of the PS3’s PS2 Classics line, again.

Will you be buying this? Or are you taking a stance against Sony’s gouging its customers by making them re-purchase digital games they may already own? Let us know in the comments section below.

Those of you who thought the launch of some PS2 games on the PS4 was the beginning of full fledged backwards compatibility are likely disappointed today to learn there is a total of eight PS2 games that can currently be played on your PS4. Those who were hoping backwards compatibility was actually coming were likely not really paying attention to what Sony was saying. The firm has made it clear for a while now they aren’t interested in adding backwards compatibility to the PS4.

Shuhei Yoshida, Sony Worldwide studios boss has been feeling the brunt of the frustation from gamers who thought they were going to be able to play a ton of old PS2 games on their current generation console. Most of those gamers felt that at the very least, if an emulator was going to be used, the PS2 games that have been made available, should be playable if they already purchased them. Turns out that people who want to play something like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will need to actually purchase it as a digital download again.

Shuhei Yoshida took to Twitter over the weekend when gamers started inundating him with questions about why Sony did it this way and his response was short and sweet “we’ve been explaining that PS4 does not have backward compatibility.” The exec isn’t wrong, the company has made that fairly clear. The problem is that it seems like using emulation the way they have, it would be a no-brainer to open that emulation up to a ton of games, not less than a dozen.

The entire PS2 games on PS4 is a joke right now- the games are obscenely priced, and having to rebuy even the ones we already owned after buying them digitally on the PS4 just rubs me off wrong. After Microsoft and Nintendo, and even Sony last generation, did such a great job with establishing digital continuity for the games you already own, this is a bad joke, a rude wake up call.

That aside, I imagine if you didn’t already own PS2 games on the PS3, you might want to buy in on this on the PS4 (although I would warn you then that, given precedence, they might not even carry over to the PS5). The starting selection of games that will be made available tomorrow is fairly good:

• Dark Cloud — $14.99
• Grand Theft Auto III — $14.99
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — $14.99
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — $14.99
• Rogue Galaxy — $14.99
• The Mark of Kri — $14.99
• Twisted Metal: Black — $9.99
• War of the Monsters — $9.99

It’s good to see some of the rarer, awesome PS2 games, like Rogue Galaxy and Dark Cloud, are being made available this way, but for instance, what if I already own San Andreas on PS3? Why should I have to pay $15 for it again? This is nonsense of the highest order, sorry.

When Nintendo announced their backwards compatibility plans for the Wii U, they ensured that you would be able to play all of your purchased Wii games, physical, digital, or Virtual Console purchases, on your Wii U right off the bat, without any catches, for free. When they ultimately started enhancing their Virtual Console games for Wii U functionality, they did charge a minor upgrade fee (usually a dollar per game), but it was optional, and honestly more or less fair. Keep in mind Nintendo did this without having the much vaunted proper account system.

When Microsoft announced their backwards compatibility plans for the Xbox One, they promised and ensured that the compatible games would be available for Xbox One owners for free, without any catch, with both the disc and digital versions being compatible.

Sony, the company that proclaims it is for the gamers, however, has not done this. According to the leaks obtained by NeoGAF (which are what leaked the PS2 BC for the PS4 in the first place, I remind you), your disc based PS2 games, and your PS2 Classics that you have already purchased on the PS3 before, will not translate to the PS4. I can live with the PS2 discs not being compatible; the PS2 is, after all, two generations and 15 years ago. But why are my digitally owned PS2 games not compatible on the PS4? Why do I have to rebuy them? 

Even if it is a new emulator that Sony has designed for the PS4 (which it almost certainly is), there is no technical limitation preventing them from enabling players to play already purchased PS2 games on the PS4, as and when they get made available- all that is needed is a license check. Instead, we have to rebuy these games again.

I’d have taken something like the Wii U solution on the PS4, if the argument Sony will make here is that the PS2 emulator on the PS4 will enhance the games with major new features! I’d have paid a small upgrade fee, then! It would have been better than having to buy another goddamn copy of a game I potentially already bought at least twice before a third time. But no, now I have to purchase GTA: San Andreas for a third time.

It is a scummy and anti consumer move, and goes directly against Sony’s stated ‘4ThePlayers’ mantra. I really hope that the official announcement clears this up to be a misunderstanding.