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Last month, 505 Games announced that it “unfortunately could not offer an upgrade path to all [console] Control players “for PlayStation 5 and / or Xbox Series S / X enhancements. Today, however, an apparent temporary bug shows just how simple a free update could be for many Control players on current generation systems, at least.
As reported in a long ResetEra thread, several players who previously purchased the Control Digital Deluxe Edition on PS4 was surprised last night to find out that they also owned the Control Last edition. That new version includes the base game, the DLC and the season pass and is the one that “takes[s] Take full advantage of the power and features that these new consoles offer, “as 505 Games says.
However, within hours, those same players noticed that their ownership of the Ultimate Edition had been revoked and reverted to the current generation Digital Deluxe Edition. That version won’t get specific hardware upgrades when played on next-gen consoles.
505 Games has not responded to Ars Technica’s request for comment on the apparent error (which may have been caused by a simple data entry error on the PlayStation Store). But the temporary update highlights how simple it would be to offer a free update to the next-gen console to many. Control owners.
This is not so surprising. Many other publishers, including Bethesda, Ubisoft, and EA, have promised that their recent and / or upcoming PS4 and Xbox One releases will include free updates to the corresponding next-gen console version. Microsoft is heavily pushing its “Smart Delivery” system to help automate this process for Xbox Series S and X.
What is the problem?
505, however, has insisted that they provide a similar free update for Control it’s too difficult. “While it is challenging to bring any game to next-gen platforms, we quickly realized that it was even more difficult to upgrade our current user base to the next generation with full parity across all platforms with our one-year game.” the company wrote in a blog post last month.
Every update path that 505 followed, the company said, “meant that at least one group of players ended up being left out of the update for various reasons. As of today, we cannot offer an update to everyone and leave only one group to be. It feels unfair. We understand that’s not what you want to hear. “
That could be technically true in certain situations. If you bought Control for current-generation consoles on disc, for example, that version would not be compatible with the Xbox Series S or the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, neither of which has the required disc drive to confirm ownership. However, gamers who purchased hardware incompatible with the disc would likely enter their purchase aware of that issue.
The game’s expansion packs also complicate things a bit. Give players the basic version of Control a free Last edition The update would essentially mean granting those players free access to current and future expansions for the game. And since the full “Ultimate Edition” is the only version 505 in development for next-gen consoles, the company says it’s impossible to offer separate base games and expansion updates.
However, as highlighted in last night’s issue, none of these issues apply to players who purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition from Control, which also includes a full DLC season pass. The same update could also be provided to players who purchased the base game and season pass separately (via disc or digital) without too much effort (players who purchased the current on-demand expansions might be out of luck, logistically ).
Instead, all of these gamers are stuck paying $ 39.99 to upgrade a year-old game to new hardware. Those who don’t will still be able to play their current versions of Control through backward compatibility, but the promised “enhanced experience” in that case will be less pronounced than the more comprehensive next-gen Ultimate Edition remaster.
It’s a confusing situation, made even more confused by 505’s insistence that because he can’t give all the world who bought Control a free update, None you should get a free update. We’ll be watching to see if other publishers are similarly surprised during what could be the most difficult console-gen transition ever.