P2S File

What are P2S files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a P2S file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your P2S files.

What is a P2S file?

A .P2S file is a PCSX2 Save State file.

PCSX2 Save State files are snapshots taken by the PCSX2 emulator to capture the exact state of an emulated PlayStation 2 game at a specific moment. They allow you to pause your gameplay by saving everything - CPU registers, system RAM, hardware states, and attached plugins - and later load back into the game at the same point without using the in-game save feature. These are useful for retrying tricky sections, preserving progress temporarily, or debugging without needing a memory card.

PCSX2 itself creates these files whenever you request a save state - typically by pressing a hotkey within the emulator. The emulator writes the .P2S file to its "sstates" folder (often located in your PCSX2 configuration directory). Loading a .P2S file makes the emulator restore all emulated components exactly: the graphics synthesizer, sound unit, input, cycle counts, memory contents, vector units, and more. Save states are versioned internally; newer versions of PCSX2 may refuse to load .P2S files made by significantly older emulator versions if compatibility is broken. PcSX2 also warns you if you try to load incompatible states.

Internally, a .P2S file is a ZIP-archive containing multiple files that represent each portion of the system's state. Among these are memory dumps (for the Emotion Engine, IOP, etc.), hardware registers (eeHwRegs.bin, iopHwRegs.bin), plugin data (for graphics, audio), vector unit memory (vu0, vu1), scratchpad memory, a screenshot for preview, and an identifier file that stores the save state version id.

How to open P2S files

We have identified one P2S opener that is compatible with this specific type of P2S file.

Programs that open PCSX2 Save State files

Last updated: August 10, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of P2S files. Remember, different programs may use P2S files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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