Hackers Demonstrate PS4 Can Handle the Latest God of War Project

Hackers have begun running PS5 games on a hacked PS4, with God of War: Sons of Sparta reaching a stable 40 frames per second.

In recent weeks, ports of Nintendo Switch 2 games have appeared on older consoles. Now, programmers have turned their attention to Sony’s closed ecosystem. A tool called EmuFive has appeared online that allows PS5 code to run directly on a hacked PS4.

The project uses a modified version of the KytyPS5 emulator integrated into the PS4 Multiboot environment. It translates hardware instructions in real time, allowing the older console to execute code designed for the newer generation.

The PS4’s Jaguar processor does not support the AVX2, FMA, and BMI2 instruction sets. A dedicated module replaces the missing capabilities with software equivalents on the fly.

Published footage from a PS4 Pro shows God of War: Sons of Sparta running at a stable 40 frames per second. The programmers also managed to run the version of Hollow Knight: Silksong designed for the newer generation of consoles. The developers are now conducting broader tests with other games from the PS5 library.

Players should not expect the most demanding 3D blockbusters to run fully, however. Software cannot eliminate the technological gap between the aging Jaguar processor and the newer Zen 2 architecture. The older hardware’s limitations become especially apparent when processing complex game-world geometry, causing frame rates to drop sharply. This approach cannot overcome the hardware’s physical limits.

Source: iXBT.games