Sony will squeeze every penny it can from customers for PS5 game upgrades

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While it is certainly an exciting time for PlayStation gamers, with new titles like God of War Ragnarok and Gran Turismo 7 on the horizon. But both of those games are also coming out on the PS4, and if you purchase the last-gen version with plans to upgrade to PS5 in the future, you’re going to be subject to an upgrade fee of sorts.

In a blog post on the PlayStation website earlier this week, Sony CEO Jim Ryan addressed a policy that wasn’t received very well by gamers. Ryan’s initial focus was on the release of Horizon Forbidden West in February of next year.

Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to the hit Horizon Zero Dawn, was originally supposed to release during the “launch window” of the PS5, and it was going to include a free PS5 upgrade as part of that release. The game was pushed back due to COVID-19, and the free upgrade was scrapped in favor of an $80 Deluxe Edition that would be required if you wanted both the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game.

PlayStation fans didn’t like this new offering, and Sony eventually caved in. Ryan confirmed that the company has reverted its plans once again, and Horizon Forbidden West will, in fact, include a free PS5 upgrade with the PS4 version of the game.

PS5 games are just going to be more expensive

The more important update that we got from Ryan’s statement involves other first-party PlayStation games going forward.

Any future first-party cross-generation game that comes out on PlayStation will include a $10 fee for the PS5 upgrade. That means if you buy the PS4 version first and eventually want to upgrade to the PS5 version of a game, you’ll have to fork over an extra $10.

This might sound like the company is nickel-and-diming customers, but it makes sense when you look at the prices of games. This new policy will apply to God of War Ragnarok and Gran Turismo 7, both of which will likely be $60 on PS4 and $70 on PS5. So in reality, that $10 fee is just the extra that you would’ve been paying for the PS5 version anyway.

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.