wasn't the devs working on their own bios for the ps2?

[DaMan]

Well theoretically, if somebody wrote a free bios, it isnt sony's software, however its copying the functionality of software they did write, so it could technically be a problem.

If done clean room like Compaq did with the PC BIOS it should legal but I doubt Sony learned from Virtual Game Station lawsuit.

As the PS2 is pretty much legacy now, its unlikely sony are making much (if any) money from the console, so a free bios or HLE version in the emulator won't be so frowned upon. It's difficult to hurt sales that dont exist

NPD stopped tracking sales but it sold 262K in 1H10. It must be dirt cheap to make so it still prints money even if the ink is running low.

[MyDreamName]

Too bad that site doesn't have the sales figures for 1999, I would have liked to compare those.

[Dusk]

I very much doubt Sony or any of the major console companies even pay much attention to emulation anymore. The only threat it has towards them is for the newer handhelds, which can potentially still be emulated within their product lifetime, and even when that happens (e.g. with the DS), they don't seem to care.

That aside, it would be nice if pcsx2 didn't require a dumped bios, though I'm sure reverse engineering it would be a ridiculous amount of work.