Sony revealed last week that Horizon Forbidden West is available for pre-orders, with one weird specific quirk: if you’re buying the standard edition of the PS4 or PS5 games, there’s no upgrade. Not even a paid option. You have to buy the more expensive Digital Deluxe Edition just so you can own the same game on both consoles under one purchase.
The move makes even less sense considering the previous PlayStation first-party release, the director’s cut for Ghost Of Tsushima, includes a paid next-gen upgrade path for existing PS4 owners.
The PlayStation Blog post has been updated with a statement by Sony Interactive Entertainment’s President and CEO Jim Ryan, stating this :
“Thursday was to be a celebration of Horizon Forbidden West and the amazing team at Guerrilla working to deliver it on February 18, 2022. However, it’s abundantly clear that the offerings we confirmed in our pre-order kickoff missed the mark.
“Last year we made a commitment to deliver free upgrades for our cross-gen launch titles, which included Horizon Forbidden West. While the pandemic’s profound impact pushed Forbidden West out of the launch window we initially envisioned, we will stand by our offer: Players who purchase Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version for free.
“I also want to confirm today that moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)–both digital and physical*–will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5. This will apply to the next God of War and Gran Turismo 7, and any other exclusive cross-gen PS4 & PS5 title published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.“
As a mea culpa (and to keep their previous promise), Horizon Forbidden West will have a free next-gen upgrade from PS4 to PS5.
However, all PS4 and PS5 cross-gen games from PlayStation Studios after Horizon will not have the next-gen upgrades be free. It will be paid next-gen upgrades.
The next God Of War and Gran Turismo 7 is now hard confirmed coming to the PS4, as Ryan’s statement reveals the two games will require a paid next-gen upgrade for those who purchased the PS4 versions and want to play on PS5 later.
The paid upgrade, a $10 USD (roughly RM40) price is to match the retail price of the PS5 versions, which Sony (and a few other publishers) are pushing to $70 USD instead of the usual $60. That translates to a raised price of RM299 instead of RM249, the standard full-price game in Malaysia.
The whole kerfuffle could have been avoided, but it shows the unique struggle Sony is facing as they need to offer next-gen upgrade paths while their next-gen games are sold at a higher price.
Source: PlayStation Blog