Sony has officially introduced a "tax on nextgen" for titles coming out immediately on PS4 and PS5
Players will have to pay extra if they want to play the titles already purchased for PS4 on PS5. This was announced by Sony against the background of the Horizon Forbidden West scandal. Horizon Forbidden West
The story of Horizon Forbidden West
Sony faced criticism last week.
It was associated with the Horizon Forbidden West pre-order that opened on September 2. The players were confused not only by the presence of nine different editions, but also by the lack of a free upgrade to the next gen version for owners of a PS4 copy.
For example, in Russia, a price tag of 4999 rubles was set for the basic edition for the PlayStation 4, and 5499 rubles for the PlayStation 5. The only option to purchase versions for both consoles turned out to be a digital expanded edition for 6199 rubles. It turned out to be impossible to upgrade for an additional fee, having a copy for PS4.
Sony’s decision caused outrage among users around the world. The fact is that last year Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, made it clear that updates for crossgen titles will be free.“No one should be disappointed. The PS5 versions of these games were created from scratch to fully reveal the set of functions of this console, and PS4 users will be able to get PS5 versions of games for free. It is necessary that people have a choice,” Ryan said in an interview with The Washington Post last year.
Against the background of violent criticism of the company, the CEO of SIE already gave a comment on the situation on September 5. Ryan explained that it was initially allegedly only about crossgen games that fell into the PlayStation 5 release window. Due to the postponement of the release date, the Guerrilla Games project no longer fell into this time period. For this reason, it was decided not to give the owners of the PS4 version of the game a copy for PS5.
He also said that Sony still added the possibility of a free upgrade for Horizon Forbidden West. At the same time, he immediately added that the softening of the position regarding Horizon Forbidden West will not affect other crossgen titles that Sony publishes. Yes, everyone will get the opportunity to upgrade from PS4 to PS5, but only for an additional fee of $ 10 (we are primarily talking about Gran Turismo 7 and the God of War sequel).
A possible reason is the growth of budgetsIt is not known what exactly Sony’s changed policy is related to.
Perhaps the company wants to compensate for the growing cost of development in this way. Previously, this reason was called as an excuse to increase the base cost of AAA titles – from $60 to $70.
Last weekend, Shawn Layden, the former boss of PlayStation Studios, spoke out about growing budgets. He was responsible for launching six generations of consoles and left Sony in 2019.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Leyden noted that game budgets are doubling with each new generation. According to him, the development of an exclusive for PlayStation 4 cost an average of $ 100 million. For PlayStaion 5, the cost could increase to $200 million.
According to Leiden, further budgets will only increase. Such growth leads not only to an increase in the base cost of games, but also to the reluctance of leading companies to take risks and experiment. For this reason, Leyden believes, players see endless sequels.
Earlier, Leiden had already partially addressed this problem. In July, he noted that the gaming industry is currently stagnating due to the lack of new ideas and the desire of companies to consolidate.
