Sony to honor original promise for Horizon Forbidden West upgrade and reveals plans for future titles.
Late last week, Horizon Forbidden West preorders went live for its various editions, and folks were not happy, to say the least. The originally promised free PS4 to PS5 upgrade was nowhere to be seen. There wasn't any upgrade path even available for the PS4 version, and to top it all off, cross-gen entitlement was only available to copies of the game in the various pricier editions.
All of this naturally led to a backlash inviting comparisons between Sony's inconsistent and messy handling of cross-gen entitlements versus Microsoft's simpler Smart Delivery.
Promises Kept
It seems Sony was keeping a close eye on the reactions as they swiftly responded on their blog over the weekend by stating "Last year we made a commitment to deliver free upgrades for our cross-gen launch titles, which included Horizon Forbidden West." writes Jim Ryan. Continuing "While the pandemic’s profound impact pushed Forbidden West out of the launch window we initially envisioned, we will stand by our offer: Players who purchase Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version for free."
He then set expectations by stating that "moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)–both digital and physical*–will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5. This will apply to the next God of War and Gran Turismo 7, and any other exclusive cross-gen PS4 & PS5 title published by Sony Interactive Entertainment."
While this may not be as appealing as Microsoft's free upgrades via Smart Delivery, at least now people know exactly what to expect from Sony's cross-gen titles in the future. Hopefully, this is just the start of more consumer-minded gestures from Sony in this generation.
Horizon Forbidden West is coming to PS4 and PS5 on February 18, 2022.