PlayStation 4 owners were excited last month when Sony Corp confirmed that full PlayStation 2 emulation would be coming to the console, making it easier for fans to play classic games from the highest selling game console of all time on the highest selling console of today. Unfortunately, it looks like the emulation may not be a gift to loyal fans. Instead, Sony is reportedly going the route that forces players to re-purchase all of their PS2 games if they want to be able to play them on the PS4.

According to a report by Eurogamer, the new emulation feature will not support standard PS2 discs, nor will they support digital PS2 games that had already been purchased through the PlayStation Network on PS3.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s recently released backwards compatibility feature for Xbox One supports both Xbox 360 game discs and Xbox 360 digital purchases, allowing Xbox One owners to play many of their games from the previous console generation without having to buy them again.

Eurogamer’s report is based on an allegedly leaked trailer for a re-release of the classic RPG Dark Cloud, which was originally released in 2000. The trailer, which was promptly removed from YouTube, listed information saying that “PS2 Classics and PS2-formatted discs are incompatible with the PS4 system.”

If the information in the leaked trailer turns out to be legitimate, Sony will likely face a strong backlash from fans, especially over the fact that their PSN purchases will not carry over to the new system. No one likes having to buy the same game twice, especially 15-year-old games that are being sold digitally for as much as $10 to $20.

Of course, while Sony would undoubtedly make more than a few of their fans angry, there are thousands of others who would be more than happy to re-purchase classics like Grand Theft Auto III, Max Payne, Just Cause, or Katamari Damacy, even if they had already bought them again for PlayStation 3.

 Photo by Deni Williams