You know what, I've had enough of Sony. I've tried to justify spending 70 dollars on their games when the PS5 came out, because for one, I needed some games during the honeymoon period, and for a time, I was actually convinced that because games took more money to make, the increase in price was warranted. All the extra development time in textures, and ray tracing, and hot dog warming, and all that. It was just time, wasn't it? I mean, wasn't Demon's Souls worth 70 dollars by being a completely rebuilt game... nevermind the fact that Bluepoint also rebuilt Shadow of the Colossus and sold it for 20 dollars less than the PS4 standard?
But then... Sony got greedy. Or, should I say greedier as 70 dollars for a game is already greedy enough. Last week, Sony tripped over their own feet by making a mess of their upcoming Horizon: Forbidden West launch by making all these different versions. Very soon, though, it was discovered that if you just had the launch version of Forbidden West on the PS4, you couldn't upgrade to the PS5. You HAD to buy the Digital Deluxe version which contained both copies. There was also their 250+ dollar Regalia collector's edition that for whatever reason did not have a physical copy. I don't support that jackassery.
Anyway, Sony learned very quickly that they made a mistake. They backpedaled earlier this week and said that the upgrade to the PS5 version would be free, which is great, but they also clearly laid out that this was the only time they were going to make this concession. They flatout said each first party release hereafter will have a 10 dollar upgrade fee. So here's the thing...
Look at what everyone else is doing, MS for instance. Every game you buy on the Xbox One for 60 dollars you can upgrade for free for the Series S|X via Smart Delivery. Granted, they aren't pressing Series S|X specific copies, but you can still get the next gen upgrades for free. 60 is better than 70 no matter how you look at it. As much as I wish MS would focus on first-party content, I cannot deny the value in Smart Delivery, as well as Game Pass. Now, I don't play so many games at once that I can justify subbing to Game Pass, but I do know the service kicks the crap out of whatever Sony offers, but that's another blog post.
Even on Sony's PS5, there are AAA publishers releasing their games for 60 dollars. Deathloop, a Bethesda game, is 60 dollars. Dying Light 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy are 60 dollars, both by Square-Enix. Hell, look at all the Ubisoft games that released on launch day. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Immortals, those were 60. Far Cry 6, one of Ubisoft's biggest games, is coming out next month .... at 60 dollars. Bethesda, SE, Ubisoft. These are huge AAA publishers (well, one is an MS studio now, but I digress), and some have made egregious business decisions regarding DLC and MTXs, but even they are saying no to selling games at 70 dollars. Unfortunately, there's still a couple of jerks selling their games at 70, such as Activision's Call of Duty games and 2K's sports games, but since Sony wants to echo what two of the worst companies when it comes to anti-consumer practices, I have no choice but to regard Sony as being highly anti-consumer.
And then, let's take a look at this oddness. To fill in the gaps of Sony's lacking first-party PS5 line up, they've been brining more PS4 games into the mix. Both Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima have Director's Cut editions. As expected, GoT is 70 dollars, but Death Stranding is 50! I'm not that surprised that GoT is 70, because it does have an entire expansion pack in it, but then DS:DC is not only NOT 70, it's also 10 dollars CHEAPER than when it released on the PS5, WITH all that extra quality of life goodness, the new story content, and the PS5 features. So why, oh why, then is a 50 dollar price tag NOT the standard? Makes me want to get the Ghost of Tsushima DLC even less.
So they can keep their free upgrade of Horizon: Forbidden West. I'll be buying that game at most on sale, or better yet, used. I'll be doing the same for each and every Sony game from here on out. I really want to start buying multiplats on XSX from now on, but I also don't like having to sit and wait on Smart Delivery to download massive patches for each and every game. Plus, it's REALLY hard to say no to the Dual Sense controller. I heard MS is working with the company that designed it, so hopefully, MS gets on haptic feedback real soon. I'd like to give Sony even less of money right now.
I really hate it when it companies get extremely arrogant like this. When MS tried this in 2013 with the Xbox One always-online requirements, I was ready to boycott. Thankfully, enough gamers like me were vocal enough to get MS to backpedal. Sony tried to gouge us with Forbidden West, and again, we were vocal enough to get Sony to backpedal. Now, I wish gamers would finally wake up and realize Sony doesn't need to hit us for an extra 10 dollars, when they are the among the very few charging the next-gen tax. MS, their direct competitor, isn't doing that, and even Sony themselves aren't consistent by selling Death Stranding: Director's Cut at a whopping 20 dollars less than Ghost of Tsushima. We've given Sony so much of our money over the past 25 years. It's time Sony starts giving us a little of it back.
Now... if I can just start saying no to Nintendo... But that's an ENTIRELY different blog...
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