Kerde Severin
Sony will no longer promise to update its exclusive games for first-time users free of charge. The company says that future exclusive releases such as Horizon: Forbidden West will allow you to upgrade PS4 for free on PS5. Provided you want to play the last-gen version of the game – which, when prepared, will be part of the $70 (PS70).
The PS5 versions of its exclusive first-party games will be built from scratch to take advantage of the PS5 feature set, and we will have an upgrade pathway for PS4 users to get them for free. However, the standard physical and digital versions will not include free PS5 upgrades. Players who have purchased previous Gene versions of the games will be charged an additional $10 if they want the next Gene version.
Sony has announced that new first-party games will no longer be equipped with free upgrades. Its President and CEO confirmed that owners of the PS4 Horizon: Forbidden West will be able to upgrade to the next generation, but for all other first-party titles from Sony Interactive Entertainment, consumers will be required to spend $9.99 to upgrade to the PS5 version. Ryan confirmed, however, that first-party cross-genre titles available exclusively for PlayStation Now will continue to be offered as PS5 upgrades for PS4 copies at a price of $10.
The pre-order details of Horizon Forbidden West reveal the same process Sony used for Ghost of Tsushima: the upgrade path on the PS5 last month, upgrading the PS4 Directors Cut version of the game to the PS5 at a price of $9.99. Ryan says there will be some disappointments that the PlayStation 5 version will take advantage of the advanced features of the consoles before the PS4 version can be updated. For some games, the lack of free upgrades is not a good appearance but for Sony, it is even worse when you realize that Microsoft is the exact opposite when it comes to next-generation upgrades. You can upgrade to the PS5 version if you already own a physical PS4 game, even if you bought it without a drive. You still need to use a PS4 disc to play it, but upgrading will not bring you a free digital copy of the game.
This is not the only information revealed in the PlayStation blog, as it has also been confirmed that Sony will not offer free upgrade paths for first-party titles for the PS4 and PS5. This is good news for fans of upcoming video game sequels such as Horizon: Forbidden in the West, but with one big caveat: in the future, exclusive cross-gene titles like this will not offer upgrades for free. Not only will publishers have to offer free next-gen versions, but Sony has also committed to charging additional fees as such.
In the same update for the PlayStation blog post, CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that Sony will no longer offer a free upgrade path from the PS4 to the PS5 for cross-genre titles, both digital and physical. See below for more details on what upgrades will be available for launch in the PlayStation Store.
Sony was very pleased to announce that the Ghost of Tsushima: Directors Cut will be released on August 20 for both PS5 and PS4 consoles. You can pre-order the PlayStation Store and physical versions from various retailers. If you are pre-order from the PS Store before launch, you will have access to the PS4 version of the game so that you can experience the main game and broadcast your progress in order to pick up where you left off at Director’s Cut launch in August.
In case you missed it, Sony announced that not all versions of Horizon: Forbidden in the West’s upcoming video game sequel will include a free upgrade path from PS4 to PS5. The company has confirmed that it will now charge $10 per player to upgrade all of the first-party titles to the PS5 edition from the PS4 with the exception of Horizon: Forbid in the West. Earlier this month, Sony released Horizon: Zero Dawn on Steam, ending the long-running PlayStation exclusive series. Forbidden West comes from the game’s original position as a PS5 launch game title and the eventual delay until February 2022 which threw the game out of the window Sony considered its launch window.
The publisher went a step further with the next-gen consoles, enabling a free upgrade from PS4 games to PS5 versions. However, some important games such as Horizon: Forbidden West were developed for simultaneous release on PS4 and PS5 for $79 and Sony supported the publisher who wanted to offer better versions of these games at no additional cost. Take a PS5 later, and you’ll be stuck with the last-gen version of the game.
