Developer Sword has added physical disc support to PS5SX2, a native port of the PCSX2 PlayStation 2 emulator for jailbroken PlayStation 5 consoles. The feature arrived as a beta in version 2.01 on October 10, a day after Sword demonstrated it on X with a clip of a PS2 disc being inserted into a PS5. Contrary to initial appearances, games do not run directly from the disc. Instead, PS5SX2 copies the disc to internal storage on first insertion and launches the game from that copy. This functionality has so far only been tested on one original PS5 model.
The PS5’s optical drive cannot read CDs, so PS2 games originally released on CD are incompatible via the internal drive. However, version 2.02, released the same day, introduces an experimental, off-by-default option that enables reading PS2 discs from an external USB DVD or Blu-ray drive, aiding Digital Edition users. The emulator supports rendering at up to 6x the PS2’s native resolution, though the README cautions that some titles may be too demanding for 6x on a standard PS5. Sword confirmed that PS3 disc support is planned for a future RPCS3 port currently in development. This timing is significant, as Sony intends to cease producing discs for new PlayStation games starting January 2028.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing