After confirming the existence of Persona 5 Royal for PS5, Atlus clarifies that owners of the game on PS4 will have to pay the total price for the update.

Upon its release in 2016, Persona 5 became the best-selling game in the series, topping many Game of the Year lists, and like Persona 4, the game received an Ultimate Edition with bonus content a few years after its release. Among many other changes, Persona 5 Royal introduced a new party member, Kasumi, an explorable Kichijoji trading district, new items, weapons and two additional endings.

Unfortunately, there was no direct way for players of the original game to upgrade to the editions at a discounted price, so fans were forced to pay the full $59.99/£49.99 for a few more hours of Persona 5 content. Now that an updated PS5 version of the game is coming out in October, it seems that ATLUS and Sony are on a similar path.

In a FAQ on the Persona Channel website, the developers state that owners of the Royal PS4 version of Persona 5 will not be able to upgrade to PlayStation 5, meaning players will have to pay full price for the remastered version of the game. It’s worth noting that owners of Persona 5 on the seventh-generation consoles did not receive a discounted PS4 update, so in the case of Persona 5 Remastered, PlayStation 5 owners who first purchased the game on PS3 would have paid four times the total price of the game if they had upgraded with each new release.

Given that fans have yet to see Persona 5 Royal Remastered gameplay, it’s hard to say whether it will be worth the price. However, Persona 5 was first released as a PlayStation-exclusive title, and it’s immensely disappointing that Sony isn’t offering any updates to fans. At the same time, Microsoft, on the other hand, dominates the cross-generational market with its Xbox Smart Delivery system, which promises free updates to all Xbox One titles that gamers own.

This news comes after many people complained about the price jump between the eighth and ninth generations, which jumped from $59.99 (£49.99) to $69.99 (£69.99). More recently, fans of The Last of Us were disappointed to see the total price tag for The Last of Us Part I remake listed, while other games such as Life is Strange Remastered also did not receive an update. Meanwhile, games such as Death Stranding Director’s Cut and Ghost of Tsushima gave fans a fixed price for the last-gen game update, while many other games received a completely free update.

This often confusing, conflicting and unreliable way of cross-gen gaming has put Sony at odds with many who want to enjoy their favourite games on a new platform. While it’s possible that this decision was made to prevent gamers from gaming the upgrade system by buying cheap last-gen copies, it still limits gamers’ gaming experience on their system. It also severely limits the PlayStation 5’s already limited updated game library for profit.

The previous version of Persona 5 Royal was released exclusively for PS4. Persona 5 Royal Remastered is currently in development for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: Gamerant