The Limbo of Cross-Gen

    Sony’s PlayStation 5 has quickly become a juggernaut success, even with a worldwide pandemic and microchip shortages. A reason for this success is PlayStation’s commitment to games, as they came out swinging for the launch of their console with next-gen exclusive games like Demon’s Souls Remake and Astro’s Playroom. They also released cross-gen titles, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Sackboy’s Big Adventure, launching on both PS5 and PS4.. However, it’s this library of cross-gen games that leave me in a weird sort of limbo when it comes to keeping up with Sony’s first-party lineup, or any sort of new releases on the platform this past year. Why buy a new game when there is a better version waiting for me when I can eventually get a new console? Without a chance to obtain, let alone afford, Sony’s speedy new console, it seems Sony has created an un-incentivizing approach for experiencing the next generation early. 

    PlayStation has an amazing track record of first-party releases. Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II, God of War… their catalogue speaks for itself, with no signs of slowing down either, with next-gen critical darlings, Returnal, Deathloop, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Now, as someone who cannot get the Best Buy Add-To-Cart button to work with me whenever PS5s are available, I understand that these next-gen games are not accessible to me at the moment. That’s fine, as I’m willing to wait for the monolith to grace my T.V stand before I divulge into the backlog of games that await me in next-gen land. However, these games that I’ve listed are next-gen exclusive. What about cross-gen games?

    Let’s say you’re in a restaurant. The waiter approaches, and asks if you would like to try the special of the day, but informs you that, for an upcharge, the special will look far better and be served much quicker. That upcharge is $629.99 CAD. Oh, also, this up-charged special comes with a fork that has haptic feedback. In the time it takes for you to look into your wallet to see if you can afford such a meal, the waiter informs you that somebody has ordered the last special. So, your only option is to shrug and take the serviceable, yet inferior, version of the special for $79.99 CAD. The table across from you is enjoying their special, as their meal came out vastly quicker than yours. You see how fantastic it looks, while you’re left to check Twitter as you wait for your order to come out. Even when your special comes out, the image of the better looking special remains in your head and affects your thoughts on the special, which is serviceable, in a negative way. It’s good, but you’ve seen how much better it could have been. 

    This analogy is absurd, I’m aware. But it encapsulates the hesitation I feel towards picking up a cross-gen title. Why buy a game and sink 20-30 hours into it, when there is a vastly superior version of that game on a console that I will inevitably buy? Wouldn’t it make more sense to hold off and wait for that better version of the game? When the upcoming God of War: Ragnarok is released, I will want to experience it in the best way possible, as it’s a title that deserves that amount of respect. Sony Santa Monica has proven to me with it’s predecessor that the God of War franchise is a series that is at it’s best with as many bells and whistles as it can fit in. If I play the game on PS4, I doubt I’d be able to dispel the thought of how much better catching the Leviathan axe would feel on a DualSense, rather than on the DualShock 4. 

    It comes down to price as well. Recently, PlayStation came under fire when they announced that the only way to get Horizon: Forbidden West to be a cross-gen title was to pay for the the Deluxe Version, which is a whopping $99.99 CAD, as this version included both PS4 and PS5 versions of the game. Or, if players ended up buying the standard edition on their PS4, but ended up getting the PS5, they would have to buy the game again, resulting in a total cost of  $169.98 CAD. While this decision was changed into a free upgrade path, it is a scary thing to think that Sony is not opposed to trying to gouge money before they receive immense backlash. Look, gaming is an expensive hobby. Sony is a company that needs to make money. But as a student trying to keep up with the latest and greatest in gaming, it’s tough to afford to stay with the hype cycle when decisions like this could happen at any time. It is worth mentioning, however, that in that same press release where Sony backed down on their decision, head of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, stated that all future cross-gen titles will offer a $10 upgrade path from PS4 to PS5. 

    There is the argument that I could start these games on PS4 and transfer the saves over to the PS5 once I acquire one. But with the horror stories of save-transfers being obtuse and annoyingly difficult on the platform, it seems to be less of a hassle if I just wait to play it on the hardware it was designed for. Xbox’s smart delivery is showing PlayStation up hard in this regard, as games like Avengers have their save-transfer streamlined on the Series X, while PlayStation’s is a multi-install mess. No thank you. 

    Speaking of Xbox, the pairing of their subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, and their industry-leading service, Smart Delivery, is blazing the path for how the transition between generations should be done. There isn’t the same monetary investment, as one AAA video game from Sony costs around 9 months of Game Pass. In that time I can download several Xbox first-party games to try out, and see if it is worth waiting to play more if I decide to upgrade to a superior console. Should I decide to do so, I can pick whatever game right back up when I eventually decide to upgrade into a Series X or S. It’s an extremely well thought out duo, and it puts a lot of PlayStation’s services to shame. 

    At the end of the day, PlayStation is still releasing games, and I cannot wait to play them. My friends are all on PlayStation. My trophies are on PlayStation. I enjoy PlayStation a lot. But they’ve shot themselves in the foot with their cross-gen plans, and it saddens me to think that it might be another year, or maybe even two, before I can experience games that people are playing now. The promised land of the PS5 will be a wonderful place, once I can pay the entry fee. But for now, I just can’t justify buying cross-gen games without the thought of playing an inferior product weighing on my opinion of the game itself. I want to go into these top-tier exclusives knowing I’m playing it in a top-tier way. 

Randy McLeod

Email: rjmcleod1211@gmail.com

Twitter: @TheeRandango

Location: Brandon, MB, Canada

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