PlayStation 2 Makes Surprising Return in 2026, We're So Back

PlayStation 2 fans hold onto your seats, as the platform should be about to get a whole load of new decompilation projects cropping up.

As shared by Video Game Esoterica, PS2Recomp is a new project to automate some of the PlayStation 2 recompilation process, similar to N64Recomp for the Nintendo 64 recompilation projects.

In layman’s terms, it’ll essentially be a way to get PS2 games playable on modern PCs, without the faff of setting up emulators. However, that comes with a huge asterisk, which I’ll explain below.

Decompilation is essentially a process through which video game code and assets can be extracted from an executable in a readable format, allowing you to modify it in ways you can’t do with emulation.

This results in code that can be recompiled as a native PC port, as seen with recent examples like Ship of Harkinian, the open-source port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for PC, or Sonic Unleashed Re-Compiled.

It’s worth noting that games don’t need to be decompiled to receive a PC port recompilation, nor does a game getting decompiled mean it’ll 100% get a native PC port either. Either way, it’s a huge undertaking on the part of community developers.

However, developing native PC ports of decompiled games can mean these games get custom levels, improved controls, additional options, accessibility features, and much more.

It’s also great for preservation, allowing games the opportunity to be fully preserved and accessed by developers.

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PS2Recomp Will Significantly Improve Decompilation Projects

As Video Game Esoterica states, the new PS2Recomp tool could mean “PCSX2 levels of performance...but as PC applications”.

If developers want to put in the time and effort to develop PC ports of beloved PS2 games, the process will be easier with these tools. But it’s still a huge undertaking, hence why we haven’t seen many of these projects cropping up yet.

However, this could be about to change in the near future as more decompilation projects reach their conclusion. As reported by Retro Reversing, several of these projects exist for PS2 games, including the Fatal Frame series, Resident Evil Code Veronica X, and my personal favourite game on the system, ICO.

So for now we can only wait and see what comes of this, but I imagine 2026 will be a very exciting year for the retro gaming scene if PS2 decompilation projects pick up more steam.