PlayStation 5 will reportedly not have a unified free cross-generation upgrade program like Xbox’s Smart Delivery.

Instead, Sony will leave such upgrade programs to the discretion of third-party publishers, an SIE spokesperson reportedly told Japanese publication GameSpark (translated by VGC).

According to the publication, an SIE spokesperson said it “plans to be as flexible as possible in supporting any publishers choosing to provide upgrade plans.”

Microsoft’s Smart Delivery is an initiative which means players “only have to purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on”.

This is separate from Xbox Series X backwards compatibility, which will run legacy games at current-gen or increased performance levels.

In a blog post on Monday, Microsoft confirmed both physical and digital games will support Smart Delivery, including Game Pass titles.

Apparently the update program for PS4>PS5 software copies will be done at the publisher's own discretion, but SIE stated that they will flexibly support these upgrades even in Japan as well
(note that it's still unknown whether they deal with PS4>PS5DE)https://t.co/GIrsbjqg45 pic.twitter.com/UKDkMoPkgn

— 黒凧 BlackKite (@bk2128) June 17, 2020

Although Sony will reportedly not be actively promoting a cross-gen program, its stance on third-party developers is not unlike Xbox’s, which allows studios to decide for themselves whether to support Smart Delivery or not.

And while it’s not yet clear if Sony intends to offer free cross-gen upgrades for its own first-party titles, the platform holder is yet to announce any games planned for both PS4 and PS5.

Electronic Arts said this week that owners of physical PS4 copies of Madden NFL 21 will not be able to upgrade to PS5 if they own the Digital Edition console (they will be given a free upgrade if they own the PS5 console with a disc drive). The SIE spokesperson reportedly declined to comment on this policy when approached by GameSpark.



Posted: Jun 19, 2020 9:01 am
Last Updated: Sep 01, 2020 9:03 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum