Jailbroken PS5s Now Support PS2 Game Emulation with Physical Discs

The horror show for Sony just keeps escalating, as a new emulator called PS5SX2 has emerged for jailbroken PlayStation 5 consoles. This Claude-coded tool enables users to dump their PlayStation 2 games directly onto the console’s SSD for emulation. The timing couldn’t be worse for Sony, especially with the latest advancements in PS5 jailbreaking.

While using a PS5 to emulate PS2 games isn’t a groundbreaking concept, the latest PS5SX2 version makes it particularly noteworthy. This update allows players to use their actual PS2 discs for emulation, eliminating the need to download potentially risky ROMs. Simply insert your PS2 disc into the PS5’s disc tray, and you can dump it straight from there.

This information comes from Swordpdf, the lead developer of PS5SX2. In a post on social media and the emulator’s GitHub README, they confirmed that version 2.01 can read and dump physical PS2 discs. As Swordpdf explained in the release update, once you “put a PS2 disc in the drive,” PS5SX2 will “dump it if not already dumped and launch the game.”

Imagine playing your PS2 classics on a PS5—over 20 years of nostalgia, just a disc away.

However, there’s a catch: due to a hardware limitation, not all PlayStation 2 discs are compatible with PS5SX2, and the same goes for PlayStation 1 discs. The PS5’s disc drive can handle Blu-Rays and DVDs, but it cannot read CDs. This means that the blue-tinted PS2 discs, which are CDs, can’t be accessed by the PS5’s optical drive, preventing them from being dumped to the SSD or an external HDD. The same issue applies to PS1 discs.

And yes, PS5SX2 is an AI-assisted project, with Swordpdf being transparent about this aspect. Claude is even listed as one of the three contributors on the emulator’s GitHub page.

But Swordpdf isn’t done shaking things up for Sony. They’ve already announced plans for a PS5SX3 emulator, which aims to allow PS3 games to be dumped onto the PS5 from a disc. They also hinted at the possibility of doing the same for PS1 discs, though given the technical limitations, it remains to be seen how that will unfold.