Sony still hasn’t got a handle on the PS4 game upgrade chaos

A year and a half ago, the PlayStation 5 was launched. Its compatibility with PS4 games is popular. However, updating PS4 classics to enhanced PS5 versions is still a pain point for PlayStation fans. The Xbox competition shows how it can be done better. Much better!

In the meantime, the availability crisis for the PlayStation 5 finally seems to be easing. The more gamers own one of the coveted consoles, the more other problems come to the fore: If you want to play PS4 games on the PS5, you have to find out laboriously whether, and if so, how last gen games can be upgraded.

PS5 game update chaos

Sometimes there are free updates, sometimes paid options. Sometimes the PS5 versions are difficult to find, sometimes inexpensive upgrade options disappear and sometimes PS Plus games are completely excluded from the update options. Sometimes savegames can be imported from the PS4 version, sometimes not, trophies are taken over even more rarely. So it’s incredibly complicated.

Let’s go into detail to illustrate the scope of Sony’s store problem.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

The 2018 PS4 original of Marvel’s Spider-Man (review) was a huge hit. Many PlayStation newcomers now want to catch up on the superhero game, especially since the remastered version also offers an option that really uses the PS5. But how do you get them?

• Buy from PlayStation Store? The remaster doesn’t exist. So the entry does, but no buy button.
• Insert the original PS4 version disc into the PS5 and install an upgrade? Nope, then you can only play the PS4 version.
• Insert PS4 disc and buy PS5 upgrade DLC? Nope, there is no such thing available either.

The solution: You absolutely need the spin-of, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Either you get the PS5 version of Miles Morales in the Ultimate Edition and get a game code for Spider-Man Remastered in the box. Or you have installed the normal version of Miles Morales (PS5, not PS4!) – then you can buy Spider-Man Remastered for around 20 euros in the in-game menu. No, the remaster is not available directly from the PS Store.

Even weirder, since you’re purchasing the game entirely digitally, you don’t need Miles Morales to play, either as an inserted disc or purchased digitally – a Miles Morales disc borrowed from your mate and the installed version of it is basically enough to play Spider-Man Remastered to buy and play, Miles Morales can be uninstalled after purchase. The question arises: Why is Sony making it so difficult for me to buy this game? Don’t they want my money?

By the way: The wall-crawler will soon lose its threads on the PC:

It Takes Two

There is the grandiose co-op game It Takes Two in two disc versions: on the one hand for the PS4, on the other hand for the PS5. The PS4 disc version also automatically entitles you to get the PS5 version as well, both costing about the same. Weird, then why is there a PS5-only disc at all? Doesn’t matter.

I bought the PS4 disc version even though I have a PS5. My thought behind this: If I want to resell the disc, the potential target group is larger. Only: If I insert the disc, I get the PS4 version installed first. The option to upgrade to the PS5 version is unnecessarily complicated and well hidden in the depths of the menu. This video shows how to do it – if it works, whatever is not guaranteed:

Compared to this mess, the last annoyance is a trifle: if you managed to install the PS5 version and uninstall the PS4 version, every time you reinsert the disc it still gets an entry for the PS4 version created in the list of currently used games. And each time you can remove it again.

Resident Evil 7 / Uncharted 4

Resident Evil 7 digital and physical owners are eligible for a free update to the PS5 version. However, this does not apply to the version included in the PS Plus Collection – for which there is no upgrade path, not even for a fee. Doubly bitter, since this is the version that every PS5 owner with a PS Plus subscription got for free anyway.

Okay, it may be that only publisher Capcom blocks in this example. Only: In the PS Plus Collection version of Uncharted 4, a genuine Sony game, there is same problem. Unlike all digital or disc versions of both Uncharted 4 and its spin-off The Lost Legacy, this very game version cannot be upgraded to the PS5-optimized Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection for $10.

Control: Ultimate Edition

Remedy’s fantastic third-person shooter control was available in the Ultimate version including all DLCs in February 2021 as a free PS4 game for PS Plus subscribers. At that time, you could buy the upgrade to the PS5 version for the rather symbolic price of 25 cents. However, the upgrade is no longer available.

Anyone who got the PS4 version back then, but not the upgrade – for example because they didn’t have a PS5 back then – is now looking into the tube. Because the upgrade package can no longer be found in the PlayStation Store, the PS5 version is only available at full price. The import of savegames or trophies is completely excluded when switching between the versions.

Ghost of Tsushima

The atmospherically dense Samurai Schnetzelfest is already equipped with some new features in the PS4 version if you run the game on a PS5. So far so good. The “real” PS5 version with new features, areas and optimization only exists in the form of the Director’s Cut. The upgrade costs 30 euros from the normal PS4 version. The Director’s Cut is also available for the PS4, the surcharge here is “only” 10 euros.

That sounds complicated, but doable. The real problem: If you secured the standalone multiplayer version Ghost of Tsushima: Legends as part of PS Plus in March 2022, the upgrade from the regular PS4 to the PS5 version is no longer possible. Here you have to contact the PS Store customer service and have Legends removed from your own account.

Stray (representing many)

Yes, I really wanted the cat game. So I bought it from the PlayStation Store on the day it was released – via the browser on the PC. There I have set the game to be installed automatically on my PS5, and in the PS5, not the PS4 version.

Then when I turned on my console, nothing happened at first. After a short time, the game then appeared in my library, but the automatic installation was not initiated. When I did that manually, I was asked again if I wanted to install the PS4 or PS5 version. Right, on my PS5. Two questions arise: why does remote game installation not work reliably? And: Why is Sony even giving me the stupid choice of which version to install?

Just the tip of the iceberg

These are just a few examples of the update hassle for PS5 owners. Harmless examples like The Last of Us Part 2 (60 FPS integrated directly into the PS4 version as a special PS5 improvement, the PS5 optimization is not communicated in the store, 60 FPS must first be activated in the settings on PS5) I deliberately left out. Also, that savegame transfers, depending on the game, often unnecessarily complicated or not possible at all are and that trophies cannot be taken with you when switching between the versions is only mentioned in passing here.

With Microsoft’s Xbox ecosystem, there is at least a benchmark of how to do better.

Xbox shows how it can be done

Let’s take a look at the hereditary enemy, specifically Microsoft’s “Play Anywhere” and “Smart Delivery” features.

• If I put an Xbox One game disc into the Series X, it will always the optimal version for my console installed whether it is Xbox One, One S, One X, Series S or Series X. There is only one entry for the game on my console.
• Digital games almost always have only one entry in the Microsoft Store. Games purchased digitally from the Microsoft Store also always end up on the console in the optimal version for the hardware, including the driveless Series S.
• Next-gen upgrades almost never cost extra.
• Savegames and achievements from the previous version automatically via the cloud taken over, even without a Live subscription or Game Pass.
• If you have Game Pass, you can even use his saves on the PC and in the Xbox cloud streaming service. Achievements are earned across platforms.

Sony, this mess is just insane. I understand that developing games costs money, maybe a bit more on new hardware. But you’ve (thankfully) decided that the PS5 is backward compatible with the PS4.

PlayStation fans old and new have it unnecessarily heavyto discover or re-enjoy the fantastic PS4 back catalogue, all in the best possible quality. Why do you greet generation changers with such frustrations? Give us the games we want to play – without bickering.