Sony Finally Settles on a Cross-Gen Upgrade Strategy

No more guesswork for PlayStation fans, better late than never

Sony already had a questionable strategy regarding PS4-to-PS5 cross-gen upgrades, but Horizon: Forbidden West’s preorder situation brought that matter to a head. This is now fixed, short-term as well as long-term. (Image: Sony)

One would have thought that companies with Sony’s experience and market position would be able to avoid unnecessarily uncomfortable situations, but… no: since the very first cross-generation titles between PlayStation4 and PlayStation5, the company’s strategy regarding how the relevant upgrades are handled has been rather convoluted. From the confusing options given to consumers with Marvel’s Spider-man Remastered back in September 2020 to the needlessly complicated ones for Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut a few weeks ago, how game upgrades between PS4 and PS5 were offered or charged for new titles was so all over the place that seemingly there was no clear upgrade strategy to speak of.

Problem is, this was a situation that contradicted Sony’s own public remarks about this strategy, expressed by CEO Jim Ryan no less: that PS4 owners would have a clear upgrade path to PS5 versions of Sony’s own games and that upgrades for early PS4/PS5 titles — including the upcoming Horizon: Forbidden West — would actually be offered for free. Well, preorders for the new Horizon title were announced three days ago and… not only was not a free upgrade path from the PS4 versions of the game to the PS5 ones (clearly mentioned in the official…