One of the biggest selling points for the next generation thus far is that more and morePS4 and Xbox One games will come with free upgrades to their next-gen versions, and with thePlayStation 5launching in just a few months, Sony is taking the extra step to make it more visible to consumers.
By now, many longtime gamers are familiar with the struggle that comes ahead of a new console launch, where they must choose between playing the game as soon as possible or waiting to play it on more advanced hardware (or worse still, paying extra to buy both versions). Thankfully, this transition period will largely negate that by letting players buy their current-gen title and then continue playing it on next-gen without having to buy a whole other copy.
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It’s a big change of pace, and it looks like Sony is updating the box art for cross-gen PS4 games to highlight that. This was discovered after the box art forUbisoft’s upcoming action-adventure gameImmortals Fenyx Risingmade its way online, courtesy of its Amazon listing. Included in this art is a new banner next to the game’s rating that reads, “PS5 Upgrade Available,” which incidentally confirmsImmortalsas the latest game to feature a cross-gen upgrade.
Given the banner’s blue and white coloring, this suggests that it’s Sony’s addition instead of Ubisoft, and that it will appear on the physical copies for other PS4 games that come with a freePS5upgrade.
This should definitely make it easier for consumers to pick out cross-gen PlayStation titles once they’re at retailers, but it might not clear up much of the confusion that they might experience beforehand. While Microsoft’s Smart Delivery will offer a relatively simple option for cross-gen titles (being that buying certain games on Xbox One automatically grants access to the Xbox Series X version), Sony has stated that itwon’t be implementing a similar unified system for PS4 and PS5 games. Instead, it sounds like it will work with third-party publishers on a game-by-game basis, ultimately leaving the details of the upgrade programs to their discretion.
Already, several publishers, includingEA and 2K, are implementing their own schemes, each with their own different rules for the upgrade process, how long upgrades are available, and whether they’re available for free or not. Take, for instance, howNBA 2K21is tying its upgrade to a $100 cross-gen bundle. So while it’s good that Sony is doing something to make cross-gen upgrades more visible, it remains to be seen how much help it will be to consumers in the face of all this.
