PlayStation Ends Free Next-Gen Upgrades, PS4 to PS5 Digital Upgrades to Cost $10 Going Forward

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Image: Santa Monica Studio



PlayStation fans were relieved to hear this weekend that Sony would be upholding its commitment to free next-gen upgrades by allowing Horizon Forbidden West owners on PS4 to upgrade to the PS5 version of the game for free. Unfortunately, that generosity is ending with Guerrilla Games’ highly anticipated sequel.



In an update to the official PlayStation blog post regarding Horizon Forbidden West’s Collector’s and Digital Deluxe Editions, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan revealed that PlayStation gamers will have to pay $10 for PS4 to PS5 digital upgrades going forward. This applies to upcoming first-party exclusives, such as Santa Monica Studio’s God of War sequel.



“I also want to confirm today that moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 and PS5)–both digital and physical*–will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade...
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I don't think this would be such a big deal if, you know, you could actually get a PS5 readily enough.

Seems like they are just kicking themselves while they are already down. I don't understand the move.
 
$10 isn't the end of the world. Still, isn't MS doing it for free? But I think there are only a handful of PS4 games that are worthy of upgrades anyway.

The catch is you have to have the disc edition PS5 which is harder to come by than the already hard to come by PS5. I think this is dumb, Sony should offer some kind of mail in option for people who wind up with the digital editions. Something like, $10 and you mail in your disc and they send you back a digital code or some such. I think most peeps would be ok with that. Or some kind of digital submission system where you take a pic of the disc with your drivers license or something.

But honestly both options make too much sense for Sony... they are famously boneheaded about such things.
 
Burticus said:
$10 isn't the end of the world. Still, isn't MS doing it for free? But I think there are only a handful of PS4 games that are worthy of upgrades anyway.
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The second sentence is true for the most part.
That said, this fee means two things for me:

First - I’m not buying any games for the PS4 anymore. Even ones without a current PS5 upgrade. I will just wait until I can get a PS5

Second - for those games I already own. Nope, not paying $10 to play them again with only higher FPS being the only real change. It makes owning a PS5 that much less attractive.

this is a lose-lose proposition for Sony. It signals to me they are retiring the PS4 and trying to move everyone over to PS5. But they can’t provide enough PS5s to do that… so I don’t know what they are thinking.
 
Brian_B said:
this is a lose-lose proposition for Sony. It signals to me they are retiring the PS4 and trying to move everyone over to PS5. But they can’t provide enough PS5s to do that… so I don’t know what they are thinking.
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No, this is the exact opposite of that. They can't make enough PS5s so they realized they need to keep selling PS4 games, but they also want to double dip. So when eventually you will be able to upgrade to the PS5 you can't just play the games you already own on it without paying an additional fee to sony.

It's scummy af. And part of the reason why I decided I'm not getting a PS5 at all. GT7 will be on the PS4 and the rest of the games I'm interested in will come to PC eventually. I do not need a PS5, and Sony does not make it appealing enough for me to want one.
 
MadMummy76 said:
No, this is the exact opposite of that. They can't make enough PS5s so they realized they need to keep selling PS4 games, but they also want to double dip. So when eventually you will be able to upgrade to the PS5 you can't just play the games you already own on it without paying an additional fee to sony.

It's scummy af. And part of the reason why I decided I'm not getting a PS5 at all. GT7 will be on the PS4 and the rest of the games I'm interested in will come to PC eventually. I do not need a PS5, and Sony does not make it appealing enough for me to want one.
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I think we are saying the exact same thing.
 
This will.boefully have the consequence of nobody buying ps4 games right now was they simply will wait for the ps5 that they can't buy to get the best experience.

Remember when the ps4 came out and demand was weak enough that taco bell gave away 1 an hour for what felt like a year? Sigh...
 
Brian_B said:
The second sentence is true for the most part.
That said, this fee means two things for me:

First - I’m not buying any games for the PS4 anymore. Even ones without a current PS5 upgrade. I will just wait until I can get a PS5

Second - for those games I already own. Nope, not paying $10 to play them again with only higher FPS being the only real change. It makes owning a PS5 that much less attractive.

this is a lose-lose proposition for Sony. It signals to me they are retiring the PS4 and trying to move everyone over to PS5. But they can’t provide enough PS5s to do that… so I don’t know what they are thinking.
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MadMummy76 said:
No, this is the exact opposite of that. They can't make enough PS5s so they realized they need to keep selling PS4 games, but they also want to double dip. So when eventually you will be able to upgrade to the PS5 you can't just play the games you already own on it without paying an additional fee to sony.

It's scummy af. And part of the reason why I decided I'm not getting a PS5 at all. GT7 will be on the PS4 and the rest of the games I'm interested in will come to PC eventually. I do not need a PS5, and Sony does not make it appealing enough for me to want one.
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Hey keep in mind that the PS4 games you already own will still play on PS5, and in PS4-pro mode, which means better fps and in some cases uprez to 4k. It's not like your games just stop working unless you fork over another $10... I agree that would be scummy. The $10 is for additional PS5 only feature enhancements. If a game I really wanted for PS4 was on sale, I would still pick it up.

I will say that the PS5 is the best PS4 I have ever played on, LOL. Everything is smoother and faster. Dirt 4 is like a whole new game now, runs so smooth and levels load much faster.
 
Burticus said:
Hey keep in mind that the PS4 games you already own will still play on PS5, and in PS4-pro mode, which means better fps and in some cases uprez to 4k.
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This is true. But I'm not buying a PS5 to play PS4 games. And I'm not about to start buying PS4 versions of PS5 games while I'm waiting on PS5 with no free upgrade path. The fact that "AAA" games will cost $70 instead of $60 for the PS5 also carries no weight, because I very rarely pay full retail for games anyway - I wait for a sale or a discount.

That said, not exactly a whole lot has come out that's PS5 exclusive, or even just enhanced, that I'm really dying to get in on, so while I have a heavy PS+ backlog of stuff I could be playing - none of it is any more interesting than what I'm currently playing on the PC though.
 
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Burticus said:
$10 isn't the end of the world. Still, isn't MS doing it for free? But I think there are only a handful of PS4 games that are worthy of upgrades anyway.

The catch is you have to have the disc edition PS5 which is harder to come by than the already hard to come by PS5. I think this is dumb, Sony should offer some kind of mail in option for people who wind up with the digital editions. Something like, $10 and you mail in your disc and they send you back a digital code or some such. I think most peeps would be ok with that. Or some kind of digital submission system where you take a pic of the disc with your drivers license or something.

But honestly both options make too much sense for Sony... they are famously boneheaded about such things.
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Sony already knows you own the game, no need for anything you said.
 
Burticus said:
Hey keep in mind that the PS4 games you already own will still play on PS5, and in PS4-pro mode, which means better fps and in some cases uprez to 4k. It's not like your games just stop working unless you fork over another $10... I agree that would be scummy. The $10 is for additional PS5 only feature enhancements. If a game I really wanted for PS4 was on sale, I would still pick it up.
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No it's scummy, don't try to play devil's advocate. I already have a PS4 Pro, but in order to unlock 60 fps on the PS5 I'd have to pay $10 / game. Which is ****ed up. Not for a next gen remake of the game, but for unlocking PS5 only graphics options.

I will say that the PS5 is the best PS4 I have ever played on, LOL. Everything is smoother and faster. Dirt 4 is like a whole new game now, runs so smooth and levels load much faster.
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Of course it loads faster from an SSD than from a HDD, that is not surprising. But after I already paid for the hardware upgrade making me pay for individual software upgrades to actually let the games run faster and at higher res is nonsense. I refuse to participate in that. Imagine buying a new GPU and you are forced to pay activision to unlock native 4K and 60fps in COD.
 
MadMummy76 said:
No it's scummy, don't try to play devil's advocate. I already have a PS4 Pro, but in order to unlock 60 fps on the PS5 I'd have to pay $10 / game. Which is ****ed up. Not for a next gen remake of the game, but for unlocking PS5 only graphics options.


Of course it loads faster from an SSD than from a HDD, that is not surprising. But after I already paid for the hardware upgrade making me pay for individual software upgrades to actually let the games run faster and at higher res is nonsense. I refuse to participate in that. Imagine buying a new GPU and you are forced to pay activision to unlock native 4K and 60fps in COD.
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It's only for upcomming exclusive games which are 10$/€ more expensive on the new consoles, they just don't want everyone to buy a cheaper PS4 game and get a free next gen upgrade.

As long as I can play my old games the same or better on the new console I don't mind this.
 
Denpepe said:
It's only for upcomming exclusive games which are 10$/€ more expensive on the new consoles, they just don't want everyone to buy a cheaper PS4 game and get a free next gen upgrade.

As long as I can play my old games the same or better on the new console I don't mind this.
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Why not? You already bought both the hardware and software. I think madmummy’s analogy of paying more to unlock higher resolution is fairly apt.
 
Denpepe said:
It's only for upcomming exclusive games which are 10$/€ more expensive on the new consoles, they just don't want everyone to buy a cheaper PS4 game and get a free next gen upgrade.

As long as I can play my old games the same or better on the new console I don't mind this.
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That's the slippery slope. Now you take their original game price hike for next gen as granted. We never agreed to let that slide either. I'll certainly not pay €70 for any game to begin with. Just one more to add to the reasons why I'm not buying a PS5.
 
I think they would have more luck with the current trend of releasing a base edition, then a couple of years later charging again for a “remaster”
 
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