Modders are giving Sony a lesson in backwards compatibility
Almost six years after the PlayStation 5 launched, Sony still does not officially support playing original PlayStation 2 game discs. However, homebrew developers are now demonstrating this feature on jailbroken consoles. Developer Sword, known for his work on the PS2 to PS5 emulator “PS5SX2”, has published a video showing an original PS2 disc being inserted into a PS5 and launched.
According to modder, the feature also supports external USB DVD drives, allowing owners of PS5 Digital Edition consoles or systems with broken optical drives to use physical media. The developer also claims support for games from different regions.
Original PS2 discs work, but there is a catch
When asked whether users could simply insert a PS2 disc and start playing, Sword explained that the game must first be dumped once. After this preparation, the process works as demonstrated in the video. This means the feature is not quite the same as native backwards compatibility, where any supported original disc would work without additional preparation.
PS2 discs. Straight into a PS5.
20+ years of nostalgia, one disc away.
PS5SX2 🎮special thanks to @_AlAzif
🔗 https://t.co/5dJBpctESW
💬 https://t.co/0NNel5pqQt
☕ https://t.co/EypS5hoENk#PS5 #PS2 #PlayStation #PS5SX2 #Homebrew #Emulation pic.twitter.com/mMcp41vFOX— Sword (@sword_pdf) October 9, 2026
PS5SX2 is already capable of running PS2 games locally on jailbroken consoles. It uses PCSX2’s CPU recompilers and a modified Vulkan driver to access the PS5 GPU. The emulator supports resolution scaling up to 6x on standard PS5 hardware, along with widescreen patches, save states and other features. Users need their own PS2 BIOS and game backups.
Sony still doesn’t officially support PS2 discs
The interesting part is that the PS5 already has a DVD-compatible optical drive, but Sony restricts official backwards compatibility to PS4 games. PS2 titles are available through selected digital releases and the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog, but owners cannot simply insert their original PS2 games and play them. There is also a hardware limitation: the PS5’s internal drive does not support CDs, which were used by some PS2 games.
Source: Sword_pdf