Sony Shouldn't Ask for $10 for Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut PS5 Upgrade

Since the beginning of the new generation of consoles, Sony’s behavior towards the PlayStation community has not been fair. First, the company raised the price for its AAA first-party titles up to $69.99, and now they have started a new plan that requires players to pay extra money to upgrade a PS4 game to PS5, and Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut seems to be the first game benefitting from this plan.

While Sony tries to justify the $10 extra payment for upgrading Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut from PS4 to PS5, there is actually no specific reason behind this policy other than getting the most out of a re-release on PS5. Let’s review the whole plan for the game’s pricing system from the beginning.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut will include a new Iki Island expansion that adds a new region to the game with over 15 hours of gameplay content. Although Sony lists some other features for the Director’s Cut as well, the expansion is the only thing you should actually pay for.

Sony lists the Japanese lip-sync in cut-scenes as a PS5-exclusive feature in Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, but it is not a new feature. It’s the only bug fix for a technical issue that prevented the Japanese voice-over in PS4 to feel realistic. The lack of Japanese lip-sync in the game was a problem and when you fix a problem you cannot ask for money in return.

On the other hand, Sony also lists Haptic Feedback and better visuals as the other unique features of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, but again, they are not something you should pay for when purchasing the Director’s Cut.

Remember that you have already paid for all the technology inside PS5 and DualSense when you purchased your console. So, Sony cannot ask for extra money whenever you want to upgrade a game to PS5 and use PS5 features in the game. These features belong to PS5, not the game, and you have already paid for PS5 features.

Now, when we put aside all the things that don’t require payment, the only thing that remains is the Iki Island expansion. Both PS5 and PS4 versions receive an equal amount of content with this expansion. However, if you attempt to upgrade your PS4 version of the Director’s Cut to PS5, Sony asks for $10. For what? Nobody knows.

Is it for the built-in PS5 features like Haptic Feedback and better hardware? No. You have already paid for all those things when you purchased your console for $500/$400.

Is it for the Japanese lip-sync in cut-scenes? No. This is only a fix for an issue in the PS4 version and Sony cannot ask for payment for fixing an issue. Besides, a lip-sync fix is not worth $10.

Does upgrading a game from PS4 to PS5 cost anything for Sony? No. It’s not about backward compatibility. Sony is re-releasing the game on PS5, so, there is no cost for an upgrade from PS4 to PS5. Also, many publishers have already provided free upgrades from PS4 to PS5 for their titles prior to this.

So, why should we pay $10 extra for an upgrade to PS5 that adds no value? Well, I think we all know why.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut will be available on August 20 on PS4 and PS5. The game costs you $59.99 on PS4 and $69.99 on PS5. If you already have the base game on PS4, you can pay $20 to get the new expansion. If you want to upgrade the Director’s cut from PS4 to PS5, you need to pay $10.