Control Locks Free PS5 Upgrade Behind Ultimate Edition

I bought this on sale for $20 about a month ago. Got the platinum in a week. I was planning on getting the DLC when it is all out but I will not re-buy the game for PS5. Especially if they aren’t planning on fixing the frame rate drops.

this makes no sense without any extra content... I can see why they may want to lock the upgrade to the season pass, not the nicest thing considering that most games are giving free upgrades, but having the game, plus the season pass and still having you pay for the upgrade to ps5 is a bit of a middle finger

The article makes it sound as if people won't be able to run the base version of Control on PS5. I think they will most likely be able to play their version of Control on PS5 (through backwards compatibility), just not 'upgraded' with better resolution or whatnot, right?

Am I glad I've played this game through PS Now.. a greedy move that can only result in bad press and sales plummet.

@Mittsu It'll be playable via backwards compatibility, sure. But you won't get a free upgrade to the native PS5 version.

@Mittsu not sure I agree with you, I think by now we all assume the base version (or the PS4 version) of most games is playable on the PS5

Interesting. I was wondering how this was all going to play out with next gen versions. The early position of the companies had been that everything was playable on next gen, and and some games have said the next gen patches/updates (I assume ray tracing, etc) will be free but it looks like each game may have their own approach. I wonder if other games will follow suit with owners of the original version missing out.

Eesh, bad move. I already got the platinum but the horrible performance on PS4 meant I was hoping to play it again on PS5 including the DLC.

@Gilvin yeah, all games are playable just that they were testing the top 100 when they announced it, still don't know why ppl get confused.

Alright, that is just plain out of order!
Most likely what they'll end up doing is offer you a 'Ultimate Upgrade' on PS5 for what is essentially a patch for a resolution and performance boost which is something we've been getting in games on the Pro/X for half a gen.

It's not like they're having to make an entirely new game, or rewrite the whole thing, it's literally an update for a game that is already complete!

Absolutely despicable! And while I don't have the game it still should be called out for what it is. Greed.

Sony should step in and tell them this is not allowed and it is unacceptable.

I gave up playing this game it ran so badly it was almost unplayable.

Gutted, I only picked up a copy of Control last week as I keep hearing how good it is and thought with the DLC coming out this was a good time to buy! Not the best move for 505 but hey ho.

I was wondering how long it was going to take before a dev and publisher turn the PS4-to-PS5 free upgrade into a paywall.

But man, I wasn't expecting this. Nothing like spitting into the eyes of your devoted fans.

@GADG3Tx87 Agreed. Although like many things in the industry, this will soon become normal. Companies have mastered the art of going two steps forward and one step back when called out. Time marches ever forward.

I hope I am wrong of course, but I don't think I will be.

That's lame, at least make it so you can get it for free if you have all DLC. Makes me glad I had the inclination to wait for next gen on this game.

@GADG3Tx87 I'm sure they'll add in the PC version's ray tracing as well at least.

Bought digital deluxe version at launch and was my game of 2019 so this is very disappointing. I’ll play AWE then I’ll never touch it again.

Now I'm curious what the situation is with the Series X version because didn't MS state that all next-gen upgrades have to be free?

@Gatatog What if I purchased the original version of Control previously?
The free upgrade path to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 version of Control is only available for Control Ultimate Edition.

@Orpheus79V If anything raytracing in Control's case would be the LEAST likely thing for next gen to have, as it uses Nvidia's proprietary RTX, not a generic engine based API agonostic solution.

Current and next gen consoles are all AMD.

@Gatatog It is the same situation with the Xbox One to Xbox Series X version. They can get probably get away with it because theoretically, this is a different SKU.

@Deadlyblack You musta missed it because it happened a few weeks ago with NBA.

All this company is tell me is don't buy our games at launch.

@LiamCroft it’s not very good when you can lock a free upgrade just by changing the name. I own the digital deluxe with the season pass and is identical to what’s being offered with the ultimate

@Gilvin @LiamCroft

There are people in this comment section who seem dissapointed because Control runs badly on PS4 and they were hoping to try it on PS5 for better performance... which is still most likely going to be possible via backwars compatibility. It's easy to misunderstand the article and I think it is worth making the note about backwards compatibility. I may be a little oversensitive about it because this has been misunderstood so many times and played in Sony's disadvantage...

I completely understand why a studio would ask for money for an upgrade to a new system, this game is already a year old and is hardly in the system transition period like other games that offer free upgrade and have all the reasons to convince gamers to buy their products without any worries. What I find to be a low blow is making the distinction between Ultimate edition and Season pass, that should probably be treated the same... also it would be more fair to ask a smaller amount for an upgrade instead of buying the whole game all over again. Just think these points should also be part of the discussion

@Fuzzymonkeyfunk I agree, this is a very bad way to go about PS4 to PS5 upgrades.

I'm pretty torn on the free upgrade thing. One one hand I think it's really cool when it's offered, but on the other hand these companies do need to make a profit. Especially a smaller dev such as Remedy.
Ultimately though, I could live without any current gen games being enhanced for PS5.....unless of course we're talking Tetris Effect Dualsense Edition (my god that'd be awesome)

Rabble, rabble, rabble. But seriously, don't be a massive D*CK, Remedy.

No thanks Remedy. I have the base version on PS4, which i am looking forward to playing. I will even consider the season pass next time its on sale. But i won't re-purchase the game for PS5. Too many games, too little cash or time i'm afraid.

Ouch for ps4 owners that bought it when it's still $60, that's not a good move for remedy/505, especially the game is not run on ps4 console. I'll buy it discounted on ps5 since I still want to play it on console (already have it on pc for $20).

Why not just state that future sales will be locked to this method of upgrade rather than screwing over those who have already supported the game from launch

Harsh. I bought the base game and really enjoyed it, I’d have given it another go upgraded on PS5 if I could have, but they’ve locked me out.

Will the dlc be on the disc of the physical versions? This is a question need answering.

I almost bought the base game during the last sale when it was $20. Glad I waited. Now I'll wait for the Ultimate Edition to go one sale. Looks like the UE releases on PS4 in September, so it should be in the bargain bin by the time the PS5 launches...and if not, I'll just wait until it is.

Honestly, I don't think this situation is that different from any GOTY version being released at a heavy discount compared to buying the full game, and season pass at release.

Disappointing move. Hopefully other developers don't follow their example.

This is ridiculous. So the people who bought and supported the game with the day one purchase and even the season pass are punished. Makes no sense. Will keep this in mind and never buy a Remedy game in the first year going forward.

@LiamCroft Sort of reminds me of the Overcooked remastered bundle for ps5 situation,yet Team 17 wouldn't/couldn't comment about if the ps4 versions would even be playable via b/c mode.
Doesn't look like 505 games are interactive on their twitter, but the Remedy Games social media/twitter person is going to be having a very bad day!
Agree its a bad move,much like Square Enix did for Dragon Quest XI owners. Guess we'll have to wait & hear more about the backwards compatibility modes for ps5.
It'd be interesting to know (obviously they may not be able to say much under NDA),if any devs know much more than we do on how the modes work for next gen,eg:Have they needed to provide a patch,or heard from Sony etc?

@LiamCroft So in other words devs/publishers can even use a loophole to get around MS. I'm not a huge fan of Control but it sets a dangerous precedent for any upcoming GotY versions on both next-gen consoles.

Well F them in that case. Not going to buy the game again.

That's unfortunate, but Remedy and 505 don't have the same finances that the bigger publishers have, so I can't be too mad at them. Most of Remedy's previous releases have been commercial flops so I don't mind seeing them get paid twice.

I'm sure Control PS4 will run on PS5 so that's good enough for me.

I'm glad I waited. Dicking over loyal early adopters doesn't seem like the best strategy in the world, though.

@Gatatog
The Xbox Smart Delivery is what Microsoft wants developers to support, but ultimately it's up to the developer. If they decide to release a "new" version and make it cross-gen, which is what is happening here, Microsoft has said that they will allow it. Smart Delivery is basically a marketing buzz word without any teeth.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/next-gen-game-upgrades-should-be-free-xbox-tells-developers/

@nessisonett Well it'll play on PS5 and will run better but it won't necessarily look any better.

@Matroska Ray tracing will at least make it look slightly better. The use of light is pretty prominent as well. The game gave me a headache on PS4, I don’t know if it was the motion blur they used or whatever but that combined with my save data being corrupted and multiple glitches and frame rate drops stopped the game from being great. It’s a similar situation to Star Wars Jedi.

An average game imo.Average graphics, framerate all over the place..... etc
I am glad I didn't pay full price for it as it was on Psnow.

Awesome, just bought this the other day! Hope ps5 backwards compatiblity is for ps4 pro version of games, as I think performance is better on the pro version for nearly all games. Pretty poor business plan though, surely would have been better to bundle with season pass or give free for publicity?

Errr, anyone like me with the original, played it 1 year ago

We are getting the last DLC at the end of the month (when there is not much to play)... so that is getting played on day 1.

PS5 needs new games, not 1 year old PS4 "updated" ports tons of Remedy fans already played to death.

And no idea why everyone now thinks "backward compatible" is "a new PS5 enhanced version"... BC is that you can play your OLD games.

@blacklivesmatter It would be worth trying again. It’s been patched and is a lot better now.

God, what a joke. The game runs like s**t on PS4. Purposely waiting to play it on the new hardware. Many in the same boat. What a divisive, cheap money grabbing tactic. I genuinely expected better here. Especially as PS5 is on a roll at the moment.

These bigshots on super salaries who make these decisions make me laugh. Now is the time to give a little and receive ALOT come next gen...

Smh 🤦🏼‍♂️

This game came out awhile ago. I think Remedy is probably more worried about the Ultimate Edition not selling well to new customers because they are expecting a PS5 version. If you bought the game when it came out, you already got your value out of it. We cant expect all games that came out several years ago to get free PS5 upgrades, right? I mean, when you bought it back then you weren't even thinking about PS5.

Scumbag move.

The gaming industry sucks for stuff like this.

They think loyalty and double dipping will just happen no matter how lousy they are.

I was tempted to pick this game up. It’s one that hadn’t made it on to the pile of shame and now I’ll just pass.

Always reward early adopters. First rule of business is to keep existing customers - it’s easier to keep existing customers than win new ones.

Get a loyal fan base and you are set. Be lousy and cheap and we will go elsewhere even if we are watching from the sidelines. We see you pull scum bag moves and we don’t like it.

Also -

Sony say “most ps4 games will work on ps5 but Devs will have to make them work”

Devs “yeah no we will milk it thanks Sony”

BC is dead.

Long live BC

Well, i’m not buying the game again. What a joke!

505 Games keeps proving that they are no better than bigger publishers, nice.

@JapaneseSonic You could have no reason to buy again

This is that we are not getting a new PS5 "enhanced version"... right now there is no reason to think the original Control is not BC with PS5

In theory, We can just put the old game in the PS5 and the extra power will fix the Frame rate problem.

@LiamCroft Two 2K does the exact same thing with the Mamba edition did not hear anything about bad here about that just the word free update. 😆 👌

@Kefka2589 Its always easy as MS or Sony too say its a free upgrade but they dont have too pay the costs too make it work. And with smaller companies i can totally understand thats not easy.

Awful move! this only proves the greediness of the gaming industry.

@Flaming_Kaiser Because NBA isn't even out yet, you buy the game once in that situation. If you want a free PS5 upgrade for Control, you have to buy the game a second time. Completely different situation.

Im glad i waited for the lex luger wcw total package.definetly buying the ultimate edition.word up son

Played it and completed it from PS Now. It ran fine for me, a few stutters but nowt to get my undies in a twist.
I find it a bit pathetic that people are throwing their toys out of the pram because the upgrade isn't free.

So glad I have waited on my purchase of Control. I know how highly thought of it is to many, a great game.

For me this has no negative effects but, I do feel for early adopters who supported the game from day one. If anything this teaches us all to be more patient when it comes to game releases, since it seems an inevitable complete edition will be release in the future.

As an early adopter, this pisses me off; with that being said, the game deserved a better commercial performance than it had and would happily repurchase it on PS5 as long as the updated version takes care of choppiness when transitioning in and out of the pause screen....

@nessisonett Speaking of Star Wars Jedi, how often have you experienced those issues? From my perspective, I don't think I've ever had those while I was playing. Note that I was playing it on the Pro and not the base or Slim models.

@RinTohsaka I played on Pro and the constant texture pop-in, occasional crashes and awful frame rate issues kinda ruined my playthrough. It’s still a great game but it did my head in. This was maybe around February so I guess they could have patched it since then?

@nessisonett That's really weird cause I started playing it at the end of November. Still sucks that you had to experience those issues. If I had those too, I probably would've quit.

@RinTohsaka I only got my Pro at the start of the year so it wasn’t even to do with the console. My old PS4’s hard drive went a couple of years ago and I got all sorts of weird and wonderful bugs including my lovely avatar right here.

@SmileyK @ApostateMage no you are right. The gaming industry should charge us over and over for the same thing. These entitled people not wanting to be milked over and over for the same thing.

Ugh. I hate the future. Snow flakes are so entitled.

I wanna pay every gen to play a game from the last gen “optimised” for the new gen.

All this practise has led too is less new games coming out.

Why design a new game when you can flog your old one again and chumps eat it up and defend the practise.

This gen has far far far less games than the ps3 gen because of this.

It’s only gonna get worse.

It’s all ok, no one buys a next gen console to play older games anyways.

/s

Right... While I think this is a bit of a d*** move, I kinda also understand it. It's partly why I think Sony's non-committal response to Smart Delivery (or cross buy to everyone else) was commercially the more sensible move long-term. Microsoft literally strong armed developers into a position many of them probably didn't like, you can say it's "consumer friendly" but realistically how long will cross generational games exist? One year? Two at most. Many AAA games in holiday 2021 will be solely PS5 and XSX. So for a very small kudos bump with gamers they've potentially put publishers noses out of joint for years. Still, this is irritating as I got the Digital Deluxe Edition and I'll be damned if I'm buying the game again.

I was waiting for the PS5 version anyway, only because of my backlog. But this move has turned me off trying this game at all.

@SmileyK how is it free when it was already paid for?

I don't think this game sold all that well, did it? Hence re-releasing on PS5 and this move is just an extension of that - they need new sales to make a (bigger) profit.

So many reasons not to buy a game on day one... But please, keep paying full price si I can enjoy my games at a much much cheaper price, patched and with DLCs

never played this game, never will play anything this developer does just because of this sad little news. cant charge someone twice for the same game... shouldnt be allowed

So what, the PS4 version will work in a PS5 but it won't boost the resolution/framerate without paying a charge?
This is going to look very bad if basically all other games do it for free.

@SmileyK I never claimed anything free....

I called it thinking not everything will get a free upgrade. Companies will find a way. This is one reason I refuse to buy any more games until PS5 release. I don’t trust any gaming companies, that way if they do release a free upgrade I become surprised. What they’ve done is wrong and I’m glad I didn’t buy it on the latest sales even though I was tempted.

Loved the base game. First DLC expansion was “meh”. I’ll finish off the season pass, but definitely not rebuying on PS5. Lame move guys...

@LiamCroft Nonsense you pay twice the price for a free upgrade whats free about that?

@Ralizah Whats new about that?

@Kefka2589 Thats what i said i changed it too normal english for you.

@SmileyK mate, it will be the same missions, same enemies, same story... sure it will look much prettier and run much smoother but still, other developers are doing free upgrades on much bigger games, this sort of stuff just angers me.. money grab

Not cool at all. I got full version of the game and I believe is one of the best games of the year, but this move it is very lame.

I found out their reasoning. The Ultimate Edition is coming to Steam for the first time therefore it makes sense to have a consistent version across the consoles - including the PC upgrades that are coming to next-gen. I don’t agree with their decision but that makes more sense if they’re billing it as the same experience across the different platforms. Remember, when it first launched on PC it was advertised loads alongside RTX cards.

@banacheck and thankfully i never did 😂 i really do feel sorry for the early adaptors who paid for this day one!

Bought all the content already, so will buy the ultimate edition when it's on sale for a price that I think is reasonable for a next gen upgrade (if not free). Maybe a fiver.