Soapbox: No Free PS5 Upgrade for Persona 5 Royal Is an Insult to Fans and the Game Itself

@ShogunRok agreed complete bullsh*t, with those sales figures it's an insult! It's a shame because it is such a good game and worthy of being enjoyed again!

I'm Burnt Out On Persona 5 Having Platinumed Both The Original And Royal That Aside I Take It Save Transfers Are a No Go As Well?

"Running at a better frame rate and apparently bundled with all of the previously released DLC, sure, but I don't think that's enough to justify a potential third purchase."

Agreed. I feel like Atlus would have done themselves a huge favour if they just did a performance patch for Royal on PS5 rather than do a full re-release at full price (although I wonder if there will be a unique trophy list, so you can get a third-platinum from P5 if you really wanted).

We all like free, but I personally don't get upset if I have to pay for a ps5 upgrade if I can play the ps4 version on ps5. Now the price matters, 10 bucks, ok, I can live with that on something optional. But 30 bucks or more, now that's messed up.

There is literally no reason for this not to be a free upgrade on PlayStation, hell, not even a cheap paid upgrade either. And before people say "Oh but it has DLC", that's no excuse.

Asking people to pay full price, 3 times? Nah. Screw that. Sega/Atlus are some of the worst when it comes to stuff like this. And they don't seem to care cause you know, it works and people ignore the ridiculous greed.

Heck, they could cancel the PS5 version for all I care, and just do a performance patch instead.

It has all the DLC, so obviously it shouldn’t be free. Also shouldn’t be full price for those who already bought the base PS4 version though.

arnt sony asking you to pay full price 3 times for last of us but thats ok?

What would the upgrade entail?

I don't honestly understand the PS5 'upgrade/update' stuff. Are these texture/lighting/etc updates or is it just to get the game running better at the same quality?

Doesn't XBSX do this by default/free? Better framerates in XB1 games (and I guess that free HDR stuff but that's not a big one imo).

@trev666 I bought ps3 version full price. Ps4 version for 20 bucks through some promotion. And ps5 version is completely rebuilt. So yes several major distended
Difference. But also, this is completely optional. Story hasn't changed.

1) persona 5
2) persona 5 royal is the remaster/remake
3) persona 5 royal ps5 is the game of the year version of the remaster/ remake simple

It’s greed and it should have a free upgrade path. This is just as bad as TLOU ‘remaster’.

@sword_9mm I personally think the 'improvements' are going to be so minor in this case, that it's not even worth worrying about.
Maybe it would've been a nice gesture to make it free, but who cares, I doubt it's enough to warrant playing it through again anyway.

@sword_9mm if a game supports it yes. FPS boost and auto HDR. Both very nice. They are/were working on a resolution boost too but haven’t released it as yet, if ever.

I mean, I agree and all, but I'm sensing a pattern with these articles lately. I get that they attract a lot of traffic, but still. Hasn't this been addressed in the previous article?

There's simply no excuse for Sega's decision (nor for Sony's price of TLoU R).

It is annoying but I got a feeling the only reason there even is a PS5 version is more a matter of circumstance than desire to make a PS5 version. Let's face it this port is geared more towards Xbox, PC, and Switch users than PS users so I'm not surprised we ended up getting the short end of the stick.

Or maybe they see Sony themselves doing something similar with TLOU1 and figure they can get away with it too. After all to Sega's credit they did offer next-gen free upgrades for both Yakuza Like A Dragon (granted saves didn't carry over unfortunately) and Lost Judgment before these ports were announced.

It's a shame but at least they didn't try to sugar coat it by saying the gameplay will be enhanced or anything like that. They literally just said "We'd appreciate it if you bought it again". At least they aren't hiding their greed!😄

@Cutmastavictory last of us ps3 full price and last of us remastered ps4 at full price and last of us part 1 on ps5 full price its the same thing. but for some reason thats ok and this isnt ?

It's no different to the last of us remaster remaster. Both are a disgrace

Sony have shown that you can sell people the same game multiple times and despite the outcry they make bank.

of course others were going to follow suit

Honestly I don't care about who started this practice. This is more about the role PS fans played in Yakuza, Persona, etc and it seems Sega is starting to screw them over slowly but surely starting with that late release of Yakuza 7 for ps5. I have a feeling I'll be relying on pc for their day 1 releases eventually.

@trev666 Rockstar and Bethesda perfected it. Hell EA did as well with their minimal changes between annual releases for Fifa, Madden, NHL franchises. Just seems everyone and their mother in this industry is guilty of shamelessly squeezing the last drop out of fans

Quickly going through these comments I haven't read the word cash grab once(I may have missed one in the comments maybe). Yet on TLoU posts you read the word cash grab and 70 a lot. Whys this any different

While I appreciate companies giving upgrade paths, I am struck by the way this is handled in other forms of media. When Counting Crows releases a remastered anniversary edition of August and Everything After I don't get a discount just because I previously owned the cassette and CD. Same with movies.

And I suspect more work goes into remastering games. Or it seems a more labor intensive creation to begin with. So Idk, how reasonable are we being here when we expect free upgrades?

Yeah I paid full release day price the first two times but this is where I draw the line, If Take-Two one of the greediest companies in the world can charge a small fee for the GTA5 upgrade then there's no reason Sega couldn't do the same or better.

Is not like there's new content or anything like that, this should be a free patch for the PS4 versions. I will get it when I can find it for like $10 which is the most I was willing to pay.

@trev666 I'm speaking from my experience. Explaining that there is a difference. Even if you disagree with Sony, don't ignore the difference. I don't plan on getting any ps5 version of these games. But again, a difference exist.

Vote with your wallets people. It’s the only way these greedy businesses learn.

If you want to stop being milked, stop being so milkable. This stuff keeps happening because the sales data is there to support it.

@CynicalGamer vote with your wallet.

Sony could have avoided this if they had bought Atlus out of bankruptcy back in 2014. They have since helped rejuvenate Sega. It cost them less than 200 m, considering what Sony paid for Bungie, something like this would have been a solid studio to acquire back then. Now I doubt Sony could ever acquire Sega.

@Beerheadgamer82 Everyone here is calling it pure greed and not one person is defending it, we almost universally agreed not to spend a single penny on it so does it matter the language we use?

This is a giant cash grab just like TLOU, I see no difference 🙂

ps fans always left in the dust, pc players have been enjoying the ps5 versions of games for years while ps players are paying for it (the pc version of gta 5 has better draw distance than the ps5 version for example), playing lacrimosa of dana at the ps5 settings was also possible and even more

It feels to me that SEGA is getting greedy lately and looking to squeeze us for more money for nothing. It feels to me if Atlus wanted this, they would have done it long ago but just like other big publishers, it's the developers that get the blame.

Making the games multiplftrom to expand the audience for more money and now charging PlayStation fans for another upgrade. That sounds like it's a SEGA thing rather than Atlus.

Was bad enough doing it for Royal which could have easily been done as a DLC or expansion and the game could have had been updated for a restructure if needed to support it. Instead we had to buy the game again to get them. Now they want us to pay for a PS5 upgrade which we won't get a big benefit from. They know PlayStation has the fans for it, so they expect to squeeze us for as much as they can get.

This way of doing business puts me off Persona 6. Why wait for a better version of Persona 6 (like Golden or Royal) when we could just wait for a PS6 version to get the best version

@Cutmastavictory Most of my friends only have a Playstation. Trust me, they will give me enough grief if I were to buy a new persona or Yakuza on pc which they can't play on PS. Friends over games!

Edit: won't get this ps5 upgrade either.

If it doesn’t have a free upgrade path, they could at least do something similar to Uncharted and GTA5 on PS5 – existing owners pay a small one-time fee to upgrade. I did it with those games, but I won’t pay full price, even for P5R.

@Korgon This comment made my day

Atlus may be greedy, but they are polite LOL.

people will buy it still

and thats why companies get away with it

This! Thank you. Its just pure greed from Atlus.

Usual scummy behaviour, I bought and played the standard version at launch, won't be wasting money on any other versions or vague upgrades, I doubt the game will look any better on PS5, it's not that sort of game.

they should have just charged for the DLC and another £10 for the upgrade then called it directors cut and hey presto everyones happy

Sorry gents, I don't get the point. Better frame rate? P5 @120hz must be truly magnificent to behold... 10 bucks upgrade and getting all dlc? Wait for a sale. Just play ps4 version on ps5. I really like pushsquare but you are the ones dragging p5 through the mud right now.

Looks like even atlus are going down the "cash grab" route, just like YS 8 has done as well, all these companies following ecah others example, even nintendo do the same with their ports, yet the masses still buy them and give these companies reason to keep doing.

Though to be honest I think the PlayStation 5 version will flop, the majority of playstation players have already played it and won't pay for this meager upgrade. This needs to be on playstation plus extra/premium for people to be interested

rabble rabble rabble rabble

@Juanalf true. I wasn't trying to insult anyone. I bet there's thousands of gamers criticising some of these remasters or remakes who on their fifth copy of RE4 or third copy of GTA5 or Skyrim

Lol @ when people mention R* or Take2 being greedy... if they really were, we would've had Remakes or Remasters of RDR, GTA4 or RDR2 PS5 version. But it's just GTAV! They just wanna keep the sales momentum going. At least you don't buy clothes or cars in GTAV with real world money like Atlus' ***** ways.

I don't think this should be a free upgrade but at least offered at a lower cost considering we've already bought it before. To be honest though this release is more targeted at the other platforms who haven't got Persona 5 before. But it would have been nice to get something at least. I'd really like to play P5R on PS5 again improved but it's hard convincing myself to buy it full price on the system again as someone who bought the original Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves Edition of Royal day one and later got another physical copy to have the game's case. I'd like to get it but maybe I'll just wait for a sale and pick up the Switch version.

Doesn't feel like Sony problem, this is just pure Atlus greed. They are re-releasing the same game for other platforms, so would like to sweep another round of sales on PS5 too.
If there is still any hope for the world, they'll fail miserably.

Same goes for Sony charging more for the PS5 versions of their games. Why was it only Horizon that they backtracked on?

Leave it to atlus and sega to make fans feel like *****

The sense of entitlement drives me nuts. Why should free upgrades be the norm?
People have to work on these and need to get paid.

Apple have £202 billion in the bank, when they bring out a new phone do they just give them away? they can afford to.

When i bought music on vinyl, did i expect a free CD when they came out?
When i bought films on VHS, did i expect a free dvd when they came out? Then Blu-ray then UHD?
If i go online and buy a movie, i can choose between SD, HD and UHD. I don't just buy the SD version and expect the UHD version free.
When they remastered Star Wars did they send me a new version.

The answer to all the above is no.
If you don't like it don't spend your money, it's a PS5 version you don't need it......ever...

If you've bought the PS4 version then play the PS4 version I bought tlou remastered but I'm not demanding a free upgrade to the ps5 version 🤷‍♂️

OK, hear me out.

Atlus is releasing the PS5 version at the same time as the Xbox, PC, and Switch releases. They want parity in pricing, apart from Game Pass where they're obviously getting paid a ton for licensing. Persona 5 Royal Deluxe Edition is on sale in NA right now for $20.99. So a $10 upgrade path would let you get it for ~$30, or half the price of other versions. Microsoft wants this game to help sell game pass, which it wouldn't if you could own it for the same price as 3 months of game pass (with no lasting ownership).

I get how this is a bummer for owners of the PS4 version (myself included). But through backwards-compatibility, you can already play P5 in 4k/HDR. 60fps would be nice, but it's not the kind of game where you really notice unless you're extremely sensitive to lower fps (in which case, you're probably buying on PC anyway).

I dunno, maybe I'm being a bootlicker here. But I feel like I got my $60 worth out of my PS4 copy. I bought the game for what it was, not because I expected a discount on a newer version 2 years later. There would be nothing to complain about if there was never a PS5 version, which only even exists because of ports to other platforms. I honestly just think some folks are mad because they don't like the idea of there being a better version than what they have, even if the thing they have is great and exactly what they paid for.

Don't forget that Sega did the same with Judgment but atleast that had actual changes compared to this.

@TheMysticOne nah, Apple sell their movies at one price and loads are on sale, free upgrades for newly upgraded 4k movies, audible offers books re recorded by new narrators, as for music most people are very happy with very basic quality, comparing free new formats for music is bizarre. plenty of physical media you buy also include a digital copy, this would never happen with a video game, the closest we get is games that invite you to play with a friend for free.

I am in the middle. I think a small upgrade fee is fine BUT they better offer the option to move your save data. These games take forever — blessing and curse — and having sunk 300 hours with no way to move save data is not great. And I am currently betting that isn’t a feature they are supporting.

I find it shocking that someone would think that they deserve someone's effort and time for free. The person who wrote this article ignorance is very gross to me. And the fact that you think a company with employees and families don't NEED the money is disgusting. Persona and Atlus aren't as big as you might think. Less than 2 million sold isn't a lot. SHAME ON YOU

@AyanamiReign because they specifically said it was only going to be PS5 launch titles when the PS5 released at the time and since they delayed Horizon they included it. Which is known information

Atlus arguably started this whole trend of reselling the same game with no upgrade path. Sony may have perfected it, but Atlus absolutely should have their feet held to the fire for not just this but numerous other egregious policies collectively referred to as "Atlus tax" in common conversation.

I do agree with @Korgon that this is an odd, unfortunate situation where there was doubtfully any plan to make a "PS5 version" of P5R, but while they were making a new version to port to other platforms ended up in a situation where PS owners ended up with the worst version of a game from a series that was formerly exclusive and decided to release the new version on PS to keep parity. But the solution of just making it a separate game, presumably at full price, instead of an upgrade is what makes the whole proposition stomach churning. Begging to "please purchase the PS5 version when playing on PS5" sounds like they're running a Kickstarter charity instead of a large entertainment corporation. This new trend of re-selling the same game as "new" needs to be brought to an end as fast as loot boxes.

To those that keep saying "nobody is entitled to work for free", do remember PC versions will continue getting upgrades and support. PC needs continued upgrades and support as a nature of both the technology, and customer expectations. And the nature of the technology is more expensive and time consuming to upgrade and support than a static console. And PC versions are almost always cheaper than console versions. Ask yourself who is paying for those upgrades PC players get, if it is not PC players, and why console players should not get the same treatment for their money, which is often a greater amount? This isn't 1997, and consoles no longer exist in the 1997 market, either. The cost of ongoing support is built into the original price. If it were not, every publisher would be bankrupt rather than reporting increased profits.

@zupertramp The Counting Crows remaster doesn't cost $60-70 though. Some of it may be "tradition" in how games have traditionally been handled and sold versus music, but corporations trying to reverse the history and tradition of an industry after the fact, feels a lot like music companies trying to put the MP3 genie back in the bottle, and getting a whole lot of egg on their face in the process. Ultimately video games, or specifically "computer games" have been the beneficiary of upgrades, updates, patches, and enhancements from the beginning, due to the nature of changing technology. I think if companies want to put that genie back in the bottle and treat it like music and movies, they're going to have to cut pricing by 50-66% to also put pricing expectations in line with music and movies, and either way they're 30 years late to the party. We're a long way past cartridges.

@Beerheadgamer82 This, TLoU1, and Ys VIII PS5 are all cash grabs. I doubt many here will disagree on at least 2 of the 3...

@JudgeDredd Exactly. Makes me wonder if this line of thinking can be applied to other things. We had a deck put on our old house, and now that we’ve moved, maybe I should call the guy and see if he’ll put a slightly nicer deck on our new house for free.

@TheMysticOne indeed..if you have already bought a previous version of any game then a cheaper upgrade path would be nice and of course a free upgrade would be most welcome but to demand that the upgrades should be free is just unreasonable..its just not always going to happen..just dont buy it if it upsets you that much..now excuse me while i email cobra and demand they send me this years versions of the golf clubs i bought earlier this year..

I don’t think the upgrade is worth it, so I won’t buy it. I didn’t think the Ghost of Tsushima upgrade was worth it it either, and that was only 10 quid.

Atlus are greedy exploitative ***** regardless of the quality of their games. They did not offer an upgrade for Royal and forced people to rebuy the whole game. Now they are charging for the PS5 version again. Selling the same game thrice within just 5 years is unbelievable. SMT Nocturne is highly overpriced as well. They always take the greediest path when it comes to make choices.

@DorkyDeviant
What about all the other devs who are offering free upgrades?? Are they idiots?? Or their upgrades did not require any effort by the devs?? CDPR offers a free upgrade for Witcher 3 after EIGHT years of release! Why can't Atlus be more pro-consumer? Stop defending Atlus Tax and greed. People have already paid for this game twice! Now they want to triple dip into people's wallets?? Ridiculous!

@NEStalgia
Yeah they definitely could have come up with a less archaic way to keep the PS version up to par with some of the other versions than just make a separate PS5 version with no upgrade path. I would have been fine with just a simple patch for the PS4 version like Ubisoft did with AC Origins lately and just release a GOTY version on PS4 with all the DLC included.

Who would have thought Ubisoft of all publishers would be on the good side of a debate like this for once? 🤣

Feels like they're just trying their luck.

Can't imagine anyone who got this for PS4 would bother on PS5.

@trev666
That is wrong too. Nobody thinks it is alright. Just look at your likes. There was no need for a LoU Remake just 9 years later when we already had a PS4 remaster. It is a waste of time and effort. They should have focused on a new IP instead.

Im not unsympathetic to the view, but I do wonder when we made the switch in gaming to expecting free updates for new generations of machine? It was not expected in previous generations..

Its great its happened of course from some devs.
But if I buy a title on PS4 I dont feel entitled to anything other than the ps4 version I bought.
If a version is released for a new format, and they choose to incentivise me to upgrade with a cheap upgrade offer, or better yet, for free, then thats great. But its weird to expect it. Thats like expecting a discount on buying star wars on 4k bluray because you bought it on dvd - and I dont understand that entitlement.

@ShogunRok I'd hold on to my outrage for a game where a PS5 upgrade actually makes a significant difference.
Rallying up the mob about this won't do anybody good... except site traffic perhaps.

Has there been a price announced yet for Persona 5 Royal for PS5? I mean, I doubt it will be $19.99 or anything, but just curious how much they will charge. Is it really going to be $60?

Like many people have pointed out it's ironic for a ps site to publish this. Sony's making it the norm after all. Can't blame them for wanting a buck as well

@HarmanSmith @Korgon Same here. Politeness is a lost art.

MS paid sega big money so I wouldn't expect anything from them from now on tbh 🤣.
And I'm saying this as someone who loved P5 being somehow exclusive ... and no MS won't buy sega because the last is doing very very well right now.

To people comparing this to TLOU at least Sony made major improvements in each version even if it was mostly graphical fidelity. Here nothing is changing aside from framerate which is a joke considering these games are so old.

Even though Sega does a lot of half assed re-releases this was definitely done to make the Xbox/Nintendo versions look appealing. I wouldn't be surprised if they complained and forced Sega to make the PS version full price.

I still haven't played it so for me the PS5 version will be a no brainer. But for everyone that ownes the PS4 version it's definitely not. If framerate is really the only thing they added they should have a upgrade path for fans that own the older version or at least sell it cheap.

Sega did this with Judgement and they're doing it again here. I was getting the physical anyways. I did that with ff7r even with a free upgrade. I just don't trust sony with digital games. BUT! This definitely should offer a free upgrade. The gains are so miniscule- nonexistent it's....well.... insulting just like this article says.

The disgrace is that Sony does not offer a subscription service where games like this are offered to you day one at no extra cost

This was probably part of the Game Pass deal Microsoft made with SEGA, "the game can be released on PS5 but there can't be a PS4 to PS5 upgrade".

@OneWingedAngel to answer your question, yes.
You bought it twice? So why are you complaining? You don't have to buy it for PS5 FYI. I DO like that super fans think they HAVE to get the PS5 version, because I gives more money to the people that made it. The guy that wrote the article in the first place didn't even have an argument for his point, other than "I WANT! I DESERVE BECAUSE I AM A 'FAN'", it really is pathetic and disgusting that there's a whole article about this ungrateful argument.

@Titntin I kind of have this view too. Backwards compatibility means you can still play your PS4 version on the new console I think, which is good and should certainly be expected. Its nice to get an 'upgrade', but I don't see the outrage, as you can still play the version you own on the new console.

I guess part of the issue is that consoles dont let you scale your game as a PC would, to your hardware, but consoles never gave you a 'free' upgrade. I owned Street Fighter 2 on the Mega Drive, but had to buy the Saturn port.

Cant blame the company for knowing that JRPG fans will buy the same game more than once. That's the market's fault.

@DualWielding You're such an insufferable troll. Persona 5 was literally on PS Now for nearly 3 years before MS signed their recent deal. Also Shadow Warrior 3 and Stray are two recent day one PS Plus games. God forbid you have to buy games right?

Like TLOU, I have bough this twice (Original and Royal)

And like TLOU, as much as I love it, it will be treated like the cash grab it is and I won't be purchasing it again.

Edit to add, I've not voted as I don't necessarily think there should be a free upgrade, I'm willing to pay, like I did for Death Stranding for example, but there's a limit to how much.

Full price is just a flat out no go, especially as this would be the 3rd time.

Ehh, nickel&dime is the game industry motto at this point.

I’m getting use too a majority of these companies doing dirtbag sh**. They just don’t get my money, but I imagine that fact that this stuff getting worse is proof suckers pay them well.

@NEStalgia definitely won't argue with you that they could cost less. although albums are the price they are because bands/artists/record companies have the benefit of also touring. And my God are they proud of the couple hours entertainment they provide these days. Then with movies you have theatrical releases. That is much of the revenue stream right there.

Games simply don't have those luxuries. So I don't think they'll ever be able to compete price wise.

Some kind of meeting in the middle would be nice though.

@Grumblevolcano Considering Atlus has been doing full-priced re-releases of their games for decades, I don't really see the point in conspiracy-mongering about Microsoft.

I love Atlus, but this is absolutely the sort of MO I'd expect from them.

@Grumblevolcano
Ooooh that's evil. I hate the way you think!🤣

@Grumblevolcano You win the trophy again for being the one and only person on these forums still even more cynical than me!

@zupertramp It's also a matter of market size. There's only so many consoles (all 3 combined) to sell to, and though we keep hearing of growth (credit: @themightyant) console hardware sales have been relatively static, and since the number of markets they're sold in has increased, that implies sales per-market are actually decreasing (excluding what happens this gen since it's barely started yet and we can't know yet.) Film and music has a market of billions. The "gaming" market has a customer base expected to be over 3 billion next year. Console gamers seems to be consistently 200-250 million worldwide with no marked increase. In a lot of ways the problem is it's an obsolete niche that instead of making it more accessible, they're relying on the same limited customer base just paying more, and re-buying the same things multiple times, pulling every trick in the book to get more money from the same pool. Console's obviously not "dead" but in a lot of ways, it's an archaic backwater representing like 8% of the "gaming market." and as they want to keep increasing budgets for the same number of customers, they have to keep squeezing more and more money out of each customer which can't end well (but PC is growing and helps offset that.)

Yet we go back to PC gaming in the 90's, early '00,s when games had super long term support, ongoing upgrades, etc, etc as hardware changes. Just to keep the games current. They had FAR fewer customers on that niche compared to console at the time. Selling 100M was considered MONUMENTAL blockbuster. Now not cracking 1M is considered failure. But they could afford to give out upgrades and enhancements. Today's studios simply SPEND too much money they try to recoup, or promise investors far more return than is viable without trying to wring incredible margins from each customer, driving the entire market ever more premium/luxury vs mass market movies and music.

It's not an infinitely sustainable spiral though. I fear with this drive to keep prices going infinitely upward it's going to lead to either another crash in gaming overall, as consumers tend to put up with a certain amount of grief, then just all drop something cold turkey and move on to the next big thing, all at once, or may just push competing subscriptions like Amazon, Apple, and the like to the forefront and much more mainstream, as it can start to coalesce the overwhelmingly massive mobile market into the console games market and spread revenues better.

But when comparing games to movies and music, it also pays to remember that the absolute top grossing games........are "free".... Load that Counting Crows disc onto Limewire pronto!

@Goober1 Ya, I apologize for trolling so much... I'm a Sony guy but it's just funny how inferior Sony subscription service is to game pass.... I also made fun of Xbox Live Gold back in the ps3 era when PS+ was humilliating it.. I'll stop with the trolling though

I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with a lot of gaming journalism, and especially with the entitlement of the mouthy minority of gamers who behave like complete a**holes online.

When did this ridiculous expectation of things being given to you for free begin? How can any of you think that because you made a purchase almost 3 years ago you should be entitled to future iterations free of charge? I don't understand how anyone could arrive at that conclusion. What about all the people who've spent god knows how many hours working on this, and what about all the dlc that's being bundled in with it. Are their staff labour costs and overheads free, if you wanted to grab all of the dlc for the ps4 version right now, is that free?

One of the many unfortunate side effects of the internet is that it gave a voice to people who should never be heard. You're owed nothing, you got what you paid for 3 years ago.

Whatever. While i more or less enjoyed this game.... It is the slog to end all slogs. Good lord did this game drag....

Meh, no sympathy for PS5. If they have enough money to pay a scalper, they have enough money to pay for upgrades.

@trev666
"@Cutmastavictory last of us ps3 full price and last of us remastered ps4 at full price and last of us part 1 on ps5 full price its the same thing. but for some reason thats ok and this isnt ?"

You are ABSOLUTELY correct, this is exactly what I was thinking. It just seems that these companies can't throw rocks at each other's glass houses.
I am getting fed up with the unmitigated greed that I see coming from many of these companies.
I will do what I always do.
Vote with my wallet.
Will refrain from supporting both of these games (and any others that come down the road) that use these sorts of shady tactics.
Frankly, engaging with them at all at this point is just not worth it for me personally.
I will support those companies and products that do not take part in these kinds of shenanigans.
There are plenty of other games to buy and companies to support.
If you are angry at the general direction that we are seeing here, then I encourage you to do the same.

@DorkyDeviant
No, I only bought it once and didn't fall for it again. Atlus, like Tecmo Koei, is a greedy company and I refuse to support such anti-consumer practices. If being a pro-consumer dev is being stupid then I will only support stupid developers. There is a difference between supporting your favorite developer and being bent over by greedy devs. You got money to burn, good for you. Throw it as many times you want. Maybe I can sell you a glass of tap water for $100 while you are at it? Anyway, I will spend my money on developers who respect their customer's time, money, and devotion more than Atlus.

@Intr1n5ic
Nobody said they expected everything for free.
I'm would be surprised to find that you even read the article.
The statement made was that many of us would pay for an upgrade, but not interested in paying $70 or more to play the exact same game we already own.
Seems that paying full boat for a game you already had purchased twice might rub some people the wrong way.
Go figure that.

@Mattock1987
"Meh, no sympathy for PS5. If they have enough money to pay a scalper, they have enough money to pay for upgrades."
Wow, really!
First off, I paid retail for my PS5 and would not pay a scalper for anything.
I think you may find that literally millions of other people pay retail pricing also.
Looking at the tone you took with your entire answer sounds like that PS5 must be sour.

@OneWingedAngel doubt it

@Intr1n5ic
"Free PS5 upgrades should be the norm, not the exception"

"The lack of a free PS5 upgrade — or hell, even something along the lines of a quick £10 upgrade — is a stain on the game's record."

Also take from the same article.

@DorkyDeviant
Doubt what?

@Svark So just to be clear, did he or did he not say that free upgrades should be the norm?

@NEStalgia @Ralizah Xbox has both a XB1 version and a Series X|S version so if there's smart delivery then it'll be very visible evidence that the Game Pass deal is to blame.

@Svark admittedly I do adopt a bitter tone with my internet comments when drinking. I still maintain my lack of sympathy for PS5 owners considering that despite it nearly being two years there’s barely any exclusives for the console. It’s not easy to pay retail prices due to supply issues and scalpers, you got lucky. I also maintain that because the upgrade from PS4 to PS5 cost Sony money, the consumer should pay something

I agree 100% with push square its an insult to the fans and the community. Atlus won't be happy when this version get very low rating on metacritic but its the only way for these jerks to understand how this is not ok. I bought the PS4 version at PS5 store cause it was the only one available at the time. Why do i have to re-purchase the game just to enjoy better frame rate?

@Mattock1987 ha wtf is this nonsense?

I got 2 consoles day 1, retail price. If I didn't, I wouldn't have paid a scalper.

Your bitterness is showing.

And even if people paid scalpers, that is not relevant to Devs ripping off customers.

@Grumblevolcano I'm not so sure about that. I assume the X1 and XSX (edit, not x1x, darn their impossible naming!) version are both the "remaster" version to begin with and it's not a port of the PS4 version and a port of the PS5 version separately. And second I think a lot of it is based on platform acceptable practices (PS distinguishes between versions so it's acceptable, XB doesn't so it's not) and largely that they're soaking PS owners just because they can, and because they have a "new" version of the game and don't want to try to split it into a DLC type upgrade for various reasons.

@Royalblues If physical resales are getting to the point of affecting what games are made and what they're sold for to skirt used game sales while digital buyers, which is now the majority of buyers, keep getting gouged, I'm starting to become not just pro-digital but anti-physical. I'm almost in favor of Matrick's activation fees idea seeing as what we got instead is actually worse.

You have a point on the resale factor, but the bottom line is selling an upgraded version as a whole new product instead of an upgrade, when it doesn't cost nearly the resources to make as a whole new game is still gouging.

I think one big difference in games and movies is that it's software, but often thought of as media. Software sales policies have always been a bit unique, and fixes and upgrades are always part of it. Even super expensive professional software (thousands per license) includes upgrade paths between iterations that cost a fraction of a new license. That's an important comparison since it's all various software. You don't buy a full price license of, say, AutoCAD, you buy an upgrade license. Same with Photoshop in the day, except now it's a subscription instead. Imagine having to buy a new full license of these things? It would be unthinkable. Or maybe the answer is no more game sales and think of games fully as media and go 100% subscriptions. $100/mo to access every game licensed on PS, like a cable TV bill.

@BartoxTharglod I think a better comparison would be if you bought the chain, and then they told you after the fact that if you want it engraved you have to buy the chain again, you can't just pay to have your existing one engraved.

I wasn't going to get it onn ps5 anyway.i already got it on my ps4.it looks amazing on my ps4 pro.word up son

Lotta opinions on a price that has not even been announced yet

@BartoxTharglod How is the work on the PS5 "version" not additive to the PS4 version? To date they have not even been clear what actually is added beyond a frame unlock. Whether or not the engraving should be free or not in that hypothetical few would not find it unreasonable to be told to buy a whole new chain to get the engraved version rather than simply paying for the service.

Obviously comparing software upgrades to physical goods is an imperfect comparison no matter what, but in both cases were talking about alterations to a sold product not being sold separately but requiring new purchase of the entirely new product a second time. That's not really an exotic criticism to make or to demand change of. Especially when precedent and industry standard is not that, and has not been that for decades.

For your ring example they did offer resizing service for a fee without telling you to go buy a new ring. If their price was egregious, that's a separate complaint (and a competitor would surely have offered a better price. But in some ways that tale confirms what many here are saying, that the idea of offering upgrades as an add-on makes a lot more sense than whole cloth replacement of the product. Which is what Squeenix did with World of FF, for example.

@frankmcma This is true. I think most of us are assuming $60, or $50 at a minimum, because that's Atlus M.O. If they charge $70 it'll be hilarious and horrifying all at once.

Honestly i don't care, i'm happy with the PS4 version and a better framerate was never enough to warrant a replay.

"how many times has Skyrim been repackaged and sold?"

On PS systems? Twice. (Three, if you want to include VR, but that's basically a separate platform). There's the PS3 version, and the PS4 version.

Every other edition was purely optional, and didn't lock you out of content or features for being an early adopter. Legendary and Anniversary DLC could be purchased individually, and the PS5 upgrade features were free to everyone who owned the PS4 special edition.

No issues for me as PS4 version is fine. If you want to get the DLC you are better off getting the Switch or Xbox version. Niether 60fps or haptic feedback would enhace a game like P5R so unless you don't already have a copy of royal no need to get upset over the PS5 version. Atlus/SEGA aren't forcing anyone to get the PS5 version because they know its basically the same. They want to focus on Xbox and Switch now where the real untapped market it. They are a business afterall.

Just like Skyrim, if you got a cash cow, milk it. If it really is that good, people will buy it again. It's doubtful it will tarnish the publisher or developer. Even though it can be frustrating in some circumstances, I'm glad Sony opened up the PS5 for developers to charge whatever they want for the products they worked so hard on. In most cases, they deserve it.

It's Atlus' greed that made me not buy Persona 5 in the first place. And now I've stopped buying any Atlus' games because of it.

I'd even settle for an upgrade that doesn't include DLC, as I tend to find myself not using costumes. No upgrade at all is just outrageous

As soon as it was announced that all the costume dlc would be included, I knew it wouldn't be a free upgrade. It's a shame though, I'm STILL working my way through Royal and would love to continue on PS5

@Korgon Also @ShogunRok does realize it's unfair to lump Falcom in here right? I mean ANY work on a native PS5 version of a game takes quite a few members of their relatively small team and a ton of their resources to port over. I'm not saying full price for the PS5 upgrade for YS VIII was a good idea on Falcom's part, but $10-$25 wouldn't be an issue in their case unless Robert wants Falcom to go bankrupt? 🤦

@BartoxTharglod You've never played on PC have you?

The entire crux of my point is that as consoles have morphed into a subset of PC, the polices that have applied to PC for decades become relevant. It's kind of funny that you'd defend this on the basis of tlou, when tlou is the other half of this whirlwind to begin with. We're not taking about what Sony of all companies has done with tlou of all properties. We're taking about what's been standard on PC and mobile, now 90+percent of the entire gaming market, since the 90s. And we're talking about games that are sold on the PC market. Comparison is only logical.

Now, you're right, the poll is limited and free vs upgrade path is an important nuisance. However do far as what atlus has told us, this is basically a frame rate patch. That upgrade should absolutely go to existing customers. Not the dlc but that's irrelevant, there's already a path to buy the dlc and most already did so that's mute

BC rewrote the sales paradigm to pc style. Done companies like falcom or even Sony are way behind in understanding that. But this is Sega, the company that stated that pc is their primary focus. The idea is, you lisr you're game. Persona 5r. You can add value to that game by enhancing it to make it more competitive in the market so people still buy it. Everyone gets the enhancement. But it makes it more enticing for new customers to keep buying it for long tail sales. Some companies however want to think like the 90s that each console is a totally new republishing of each title. That doesn't fly on PC. And it shouldn't fly on console. This isn't uncharted territory, the model has existed for decades and companies that try to gouge by flipping off the model deserve to be called out for it.

Are we really at a phase of consumerism where we don't even attempt to assert our bargaining power as customers and instead just submit to what we're told to accept or ignore it and let the suckers get bled dry. Imagine if Sega never used their bargaining power and accepted every contact offered or just declined the bad ones instead of bargaining? That's not a free market, it's mercantilism.

@TowaHerschel7
I think I see what your saying but I also think it's fair to include Falcom in this situation. The problem with the YS8 situation is in that the upgrade is going to feel so miniscule that one has to question what the point was to even decide to go ahead with the project at all much like TLOU1 and P5R. And charging full price again is just the cherry on top.

Every opportunity taken is an opportunity lost. You are right that Falcom isn't a huge company. That's why it's questionable why they decided to put their resources into porting YS8 instead of maybe working on a new game of some sort. Maybe a sequel to Tokyo Xanadu or something else entirely would have been welcome but instead it's just YS8 again with minimal improvement.

I think yourself, @ShogunRok, myself and many others want these companies to succeed at the end of the day. For example Falcom and NISA finally bringing Trails From Zero to the West officially was a great use of resources as most Western fans have never had a chance to play that title (also shout out to Geofront for helping get the ball rolling). YS8 however is already readily available and runs well on PS4 so it just doesn't make as much sense.

Long story short no one wants them to go bankrupt. We all want them to succeed. 😄

Lol at people defending another cash grab from this industry.

I remember back in the PS2 days when not only were Atlus games budget priced, half the time you’d get something neat like a plushie, soundtrack CD or art book just for buying the game.

What a different time.

Maybe they should have added Director's Cut to the title so people wouldn't complain

Remember when publishers used to release a GotY version that included all DLC for full RRP and nobody cared?
I see no difference in this case, if it was just the base with no DLC then I'd understand.

I don't think the upgrades have to be free, but there should be a reasonably priced upgrade path. I bought the original Persona 5 when it was $10. I really loved the game, so I bought Royal when it was $30 (and still never played it). Now they are saying if I want the better version, I need to buy the game again and my current copies are worthless? The way Atlas/Sega is running this, it punishes the most loyal fans.

Side note, this is why I haven't bought the Last of Us: Part II yet. I expect a native PS5 version and I'm not sure there will be an upgrade path or if Sony will one day cut off PS4 games, but not PS5 games on a future console.

"Free PS5 upgrades should be the norm, not the exception."

Why? When remasters were being released left, right, and center last gen where was this same energy?

You wanna know what i find interesting? We never asked for free upgrades last gen, like last gen saw a lot of remasters yet no one really complained they weren't free. I ask the author moaning that he can't have free stuff this, when you upgraded from VHS to DVD did you expect the DVD to be free?

Not defending Atlus but gamers have become such whiny entitled people when it comes to upgrades. End of the day free upgrades are a nice bonus but we were never promised them, when i bought P5R i was never told i'm entitled to PS5 version so i never

Gamers are just cheapskates who want and expect everything for free and then write immature pieces like this when they aren't giving something for free that they were never promised. You never see this mind set with any other media.

I am fine cutting Atlus some slack when GTAV, Skyrim, and last of us is being sold a third time, I do not love it but it is already too late.

moans about greed ...yet screams i want it for free...............

@BartoxTharglod like the articles on how some ps plus games don't have free upgrades if they get a ps5 version (re2 , re3 & re7 for example) it's ridiculous presumably they'll also be complaining to sony when their subscription runs out & they can no longer access those 'free' games

@Dudditz09 well yes, I admitted to being bitter. And devs aren’t ‘ripping off’ consumers by making them pay for the upgrade because upgrading the game costs the devs time and money. It’s just a business doing what a business does

That's their problem. No reason for me to play it again. No cash from me. Even if they offered a $10 upgrade, I'd do it. Guess they'll just hope the three people who haven't played (and have a desire to play) P5R pony up. Their sales numbers would be interesting to watch. I'll wait for 6.

@WallyWest You are actually... defending Atlus. Not saying it's not a good point, but it's definitely defending their actions. I also believe developers can do whatever they want, but so can the consumers. It's a hard pass from me.

This is Sony and PlayStation - why is anyone surprised?

Ah, yes ...So greedy! Only Sony is allowed to do that!

Hopefully, this will get its 10/100 on metacritic.

Another cashgrab.

So many people really in bed with Atlus ahaha

See what happens guys when you commit to buying a system (ps5) just because of the visual upgrades and NO NEW ips on the system to optimize the console? They do these things because there are hundreds of thousands of PS5's sitting in peoples homes, I hate to say it but "its what you asked for!' "Suck it up!" . This whole "lets repolish games that were on the ps4" Is getting played out

@KidBoruto its called "STOCKHOLM SYNDROME" people that get abused and learn to love their abusers.... Thats all I can say...Gamers paying a company for something 2 or 3 times is mentally disturbing....

@tselliot I'm not defending Atlus i'm instead criticising this entitled attitude that gamers have, end of the day when a film gets a 4K Blu Ray release they don't give Blu Ray owners a free version, when a book gets a new edition owners of the previous version don't get it for free. Free upgrades are a nice gesture and nothing more, we were never owed them.

@MakersMark People have bought films and books multiple times and no one thinks twice about it. What's mentally disturbing is your attitude.

If you already have the ps4 version you'll be ok.

@Juanalf I see a big difference what did they change besides the framerate and resolution?

@WallyWest But this one is really nasty free Xbox gamepass and after the fans paid two times already its really greedy. The upgrade wont be that special a resolution and framerate update is the biggest thing i guess this should have been a €10 upgrade. Its smart to make the PS fanbase hate you FFS even it would be a €39 release would be crime.

If PlayStation makes me pay full price for a PS5 Pro when I already paid for a PS5, I’m going to be livid. Pure cash grab.

The entitlement displayed by some is incredible.

Why offer an upgrade path and lower your profits if fanboys will gladly pay the full price the third time and thank you for it.

I'm surprised not one person said anything about Nintendo doing the same things, yet no one bats an eye. Specifically speaking about games like MK8, Super Mario Bros U, DK Tropical Freeze, etc.

I'm in the minority of folks that don't think TLoU is a cash crab. The price is horrendous and is probably the main reason for the cash grab label. So much work has went into it that it's essentially a regular PS5 game. Again, I don't agree with the price and will be waiting on a sale. Just like I did for GTAV.

@DualWielding haha millennials are funny because they're so ignorant to the things that actually are happening in life. What you said and how you said it basically sums up the selfishness of this article and people who agree with it. Disgusting

@tehKAMI yeah, exactly. Nothing wrong gouging idiots.

@MakersMark the good thing is this year PlayStation have lots of new things. Unfortunately Xbox didn't have anything new this year so your argument is moot.

@TheCollector316 you haven't played it and you're complaining. No one said the previous copies were worthless except Fanboys on here.

@BartoxTharglod "Funny how you make the distinction that PSVR is a separate platform, and yet somehow the PS5 version isn't."

Maybe because the PS5 plays PS4 titles, but it doesn't play PSVR titles without extra equipment. PS4 plays all PS4 titles, PS5 plays all PS4 and 5 titles. It's a continuation of that platform, but the PSVR doesn't play play 4 or 5 titles, and the PS4 and 5 don't play PSVR without a PSVR. It's literally a sub-platform.

It's not just me making that distinction. Even Bethesda made that distinction. That's why they gave the PS5 upgrade of Skyrim away for free, but charged for the VR version.

I just find it funny when people use Skyrim as the prime example as the big cash cow that gets repackaged and resold, and it literally had a free upgrade and released the DLC as a package. If P5 had done this, you wouldn't be seeing articles like this.

If re-release happy Bethesda are under the understanding that charging for next gen upgrades is an outdated concept, what does that say about those that still charge?

Times and expectations have changed.

@Akila_24 I didn't know you can just download hardware upgrades now from the PS store lol.

To be fair, P5 Royal is already available for the PS5 via backwards compatibility. However, they should have just offered PS4 owners an upgrade path, if the costume DLCs are the only thing they added. It seems that the only incentive in buying games on day one is just to play it first. How many versions do you need to buy to get the definitive experience? We have director's cut, remaster and remake.

@Royalblues I'm honestly upset with the industry and how is being led into a manipulative, exploitative industry. But I'm getting even more upset with the customers/enablers. There's just so much of the gaming market that's mentally.... Off. Compulsive behaviors, lack of impulse control etc. It just feels like a collection of the unstable..... And then corraled by now insidious companies who know that and increasingly manipulate and prey upon that characteristic of their market. The whole thing is starting to feel sleazy. And in this case we're taking about a company who's other half is a gambling machines company..... Which is exactly the mindset all of video games has been rapidly decending into. While customers defend it like the guy down to his last chips at the roulette table.

@BartoxTharglod The idea of "charging because they can" isa curious one in this case as well, because as I said that's a big aspect of what's going on, only recently did gaming companies shift to "80s greed is good"economics, which SHOULD roundly be rejected in an industries. However in this case, we're talking about a Japanese company. The nature of the Japanese "social contract" is precisely that that sort of thing is frowned upon. You don't charge just because you can, you charge a fair price (which we should be doing here but we suck, while Japan has that as part of the expected social order. So for a Japanese company to be behaving that way stands out like a sore thumb.

@DorkyDeviant

Stop being silly. The point was I bought a game I didn't play (Persona 5 Royal - I played the original) and now there is better version of that game that exists and no upgrade path. I don't expect a free upgrade, but I do expect an upgrade path of some variety. I'm not buying the game a third time. Punishing the most loyal fans is all this is.

@TheCollector316 @BrainHacker Yeah, that's one big take away from this rexent trend. People that buy games at launch expecting to have them for whenever they want to use it are the ones getting screwed by these approaches. The lesson to be learned is to simply not buy anything ever unless you're playing it that day. Which means there's really no incentive for most people that have been buying games at launch at full price to continue doing so. And realistically that probably means cutting back on games bought and eliminating the idea of backlog. That should really result in revenue losses in the industry if we stop overbuying because they're actively punish us for doing so.

Of course the above mentioned compulsion problems in so much of the gaming market might make the above mentioned casino mentality too successful.

@Flaming_Kaiser Well Sony should have paid for them to be on Plus then, end of the day MS did what Sony didn't.

@TheCollector316 You know WB should have giving me The Dark Knight Trilogy 4K Blu Rays for free as i owned them on Blu Ray already. Also any new edition of The Lord of The Rings books should be free for me as i already own them in other editions. Also any remaster of Dark Side of the Moon i expect for free as i already own it. That new edition of The Doomsday Clock coming out better be free for me as i already own the paperback versions so screw DC for punishing me if they don't.

@WallyWest
They should certainly reward your loyalty by giving you the opportunity to give them more money in a fair way if you so choose. Carry on.

@NEStalgia These publishers and developers are coming up with new ways to resell the same game. Before, resolution bumps and unlocking 60fps mode are called update patch. But now they are called PS5 version, So developers can resell it again

@WallyWest Why are you even comparing video games to other forms of media? Do you really think it will cost Sega a whole production team for a mere resolution bump and 60fps patch? Even Ubisoft are giving "free" upgrades.

@BrainHacker Why shouldn't i? Video games aren't the special exception to how these things work and until this Gen no one begged for and cried over free upgrades. Some advice if you want the 8K120fps version of Ragnarok for PS6 don't buy the PS5 version thinking you're getting it in 5 years time for free.

@WallyWest It is an exception because update patches are downloadable and it wouldn't cost the developer a whole production team. if other developers can give free upgrades, why should Atlus and Sony be an exception?

Good advice. But I will wait for GoW Ragnarok on PC and the graphics mods from the community will be free.

@WallyWest Why waste money on that FFS for such a simple update it should have been €10 at max. Man they didnt have a upgrade for the original game. But screwing over your fanbase is always smart.

I feel like the PS version only exists for existence purposes. It’s not really to sell it old owners. Pretty sure the save data doesn’t carry over either.

But it’s kind of a d4mn if you do d4mn if you don’t. If there wasn’t a PS5 version people would complain.Then again no one complains about FF12 being locked at 30fps on PS5, but being 60 on the XSX.

I don’t know it just seems to me that the getting any game out of the gate these days seems pointless when all these games get “ultimate” versions.

I mean, just look at the characters in the game…and they’re fighters? The game insults itself

>Bought the same game twice
>Still got accused of wanting free stuff. Because you don't want to pay the developers another $60/$70 just to toggle the game settings from the option menu.

I hope the people defending this anti-consumer practices actually bought another copy/PS5 version of games with free upgrades.

Got the original P5 day one. Loved it.

Got P5 Royal day one. Loved it.

Will not get this, probably ever. It is a baffling decision that can only be explained as a way to nickel and dime the biggest fans.
The level of enchancements for the PS5 version don't warrant a purchase. It should be a free version for all P5 Royal owners. DLC licenses from P5R ps4 should just carry over as well.

I'd like to imagine that goodwill would have helped sell the game to anyone who skipped Royal originally. But oh well...

@sword_9mm its up to the developer , yeah there is a automatic stuff but its not the same as a native series x version.

when you buy a car do you get a free upgrade to the new model?
when you buy a album do you get a free upgrade to the new cassette and then again to the CD and then again to the remastered CD and then again to the deluxe 180g vinyl double album? no. period. you pay up each time or you go without.

the practice of free upgrades should never have started and needs to stop. You want a game on a new console, you pay up or you go without. Irrelevant if it has added content, remastered gameplay/visuals or is entirely remade.

You want it... you pay. Good for devs/pubs not joining the bandwagon and validating modern gamers entitled attitudes.

@TheCollector316 I keep hoping for an upgrade path for my GameCube version of Super Mario Sunshine to a Switch version.

None of you have a good point only a selfish one.

@DorkyDeviant Ah yes, how very selfish of me to have reasonable expectations. I'll just vote with my wallet, like everyone should and that's that.

There's a ton of people in here that are overly entitled and think upgrades should be free (not me), but there are just as many masochists in here who take their lashings and ask for more. You hate to see it.

@TheCollector316 it's not reasonable to think what you think

i would be willing to bet everything that MS when they gave sega/atlus the game pass money they also paid to make sure no upgrade path was allowed for PS users to even farther entice ppl to just get it on game pass

Screw them, I won't be buying it. And they don't even like the platform enough to release P3 and P4 on PS4 at least, even though they're releasing them on other current platforms.
I guess even if they eventually do I won't buy them either. I already have all of the DLC for the game, I bought both damn versions. Stupid of me to give them money.

No I don't care if anyone thinks that's entitled. I can be annoyed by whatever I want, I can choose whether or not to give a company money whenever I want. Both of those things are my choice, not yours.

@trev666 they actually put in respectable effort for the remake. This is no remake. I almost dont care because it looks the same, but it would be nice