Horizon Forbidden West PS5 Upgrade Not Offered In Any Editions
It's been revealed that Horizon Forbidden West's Standard and Special Editions will not include a PlayStation 5 upgrade for PS4 owners. Players who pick up the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel on PS4 and play it on PS5 later will either have to buy other editions from the outset, play the game via backward compatibility, or outright re-purchase the game on PS5.
After opening up pre-orders for the game on September 2, Sony announced the various editions for Horizon Forbidden West. These range from a $60/$70 Standard Edition to a $260 Regalla Edition that comes with large Tremortusk statue, an art book, and much more. There are five editions in total, and the $70/80 Special Edition comes with an artful steelbook case and a physical copy of the game. The steelbook is also available in the Collector's and Regalla Editions, but those considerably more expensive options come only with digital codes for Horizon Forbidden West's PS4 and PS5 versions rather than physical discs.
The $80 Digital Deluxe Edition and those collector's options will be the only way to get both versions of Horizon Forbidden West in the same package, as there's no PS4-to-PS5 upgrade path planned for the game, a fact revealed by the official PlayStation FAQ. Although Horizon Forbidden West will play best on PS5, the ongoing PS5 shortage means many players will likely playing the game on Sony's last-gen console out of necessity rather than by choice.
It seems odd that Sony wouldn't even offer a $10 or $20 PS5 upgrade, something that it and other publishers have done since the new-gen consoles released last year. The Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut and Death Stranding Director's Cut both allow PS4 owners to upgrade to their respective PS5 versions for a small fee. On the other side of the console aisle, Xbox offers free upgrades for most cross-gen titles through its Smart Delivery system. Some publishers don't utilize this feature, but every first-party Xbox title does, making Sony's first-party treatment of Horizon Forbidden West seem miserly by contrast.
There was already some disappointment over Horizon Forbidden West's delay, so one would imagine Sony would try to soften that blow by offering customers extra incentives - such as a reasonable PS5 upgrade path. Instead, players have been severely limited to the costly collector's box sets, the Digital Deluxe Edition, or double-dipping on the Standard and Special Editions if they want to play the game on both Sony consoles. It seems like a major step backwards step for the publisher's first-party strategy, and it's not clear exactly what motivated this shift for Horizon Forbidden West.
Horizon Forbidden West will be available for PS5 and PS4 on February 18, 2022.
Source: PlayStation