As the release of the PlayStation 5 comes to a close, we are nearing a breakthrough experience that will see us playing our pre-owned PS4 titles to their up-to-date version on the next-gen console through upgrades.
Upgrading, on the part of the players, is a cost-saving measure that offsets the need to re-purchase an old game in order to encounter them in their newfound glory on new hardware.
The Xbox camp has a similar thing going on, too, which refers to the Xbox Smart Delivery. The PlayStation simply does not have a synonymous fancy term to it.
In light of the PS5’s upcoming release next month, Sony has released a dedicated PS5 support page clarifying how the upgrade system works. As it appears, the process would be significantly different depending on whether the user owns the game as a disc or in a digital format.
Disc owners
Upgrading a game in physical format to its PS5 counterpart would be as simple as having a PSN account logged in, inserting the disc on the PS5, and choosing to make the upgrade from the game hub. Doing the procedure in that particular order, the system will then automatically download the PS5 version of the same game.
Do note that, while the process may seem to convert a physical disc into a digital version for the PS5, this is not necessarily the case. To run the game on the console would still require the disc. The console will merely facilitate the processing of the game with all the embellishment that the PS5 is capable of.
Digital owners
Upgrading a PS4 game you already owned in digital format is also a straightforward methodology. To make the upgrade, simply find the game on the PS Store or game hub and choose to upgrade the game. Playing the game on the PS5, especially on the Digital Edition, is as simple as downloading the game after the upgrade.
Progress transfer and backwards compatibility
Many might find the switch to next-gen an easy choice arising from the upgrade. But Sony warns that cross-generational save transfers remain a developer decision. This means that, at least at the moment, some games may not offer the transfer of the player’s existing progression of certain PS4 games to the PS5.
When PS5 launches this November, more than 99% of the PS4 library will be playable on PS5.
Your top backward compatibility questions, answered: https://t.co/VV4qNSa3oA pic.twitter.com/44WKSvcvae
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 9, 2020
Alternatively, for titles that will not be making a jump to the PS5, the upcoming console is backwards-compatible to a large majority of PS4’s library of games. To be more specific, it’s capable of running all of PS4’s titles, except for the 10 ones that Sony has revealed not to be backwards-compatible.
Image used courtesy of PlayStation/YouTube Screenshot