PS Now's April Games All Skip PS5 Upgrades & Are Locked To PS4 Versions
Though two of April's PlayStation Now additions, Marvel's Avengers and Borderlands 3, have free PlayStation 5 upgrades, all subscribers will only be able to access each game's respective PS4 iteration. Today, Sony added the two aforementioned titles to the PS Now library, along with Hinterland Studio's first-person survival game, The Long Dark.
Interestingly, this doesn't serve as the first instance of PS5 owners missing out on a free upgrade when picking up a title via one of Sony's services. Final Fantasy VII Remake, for example, counted among the freebies in PS Plus' March 2021 lineup. Though the remake is due for a PS5 upgrade this summer, players who experience FF7R through PS Plus will have to buy the full game if they want to take advantage of the soon-to-be-released next-gen enhancements. It's now clear that the absence of PS5 upgrade options will become the norm across both PS Plus and PS Now. (Though it is worth noting that Control Ultimate Edition previously featured as a PS Plus offering.)
According to Push Square, only the PS4 versions of Marvel's Avengers and Borderlands 3 are accessible through PlayStation Now, despite the fact that both titles boast free PS5 upgrades. PS Now subscribers who own the latest hardware, then, are saddled with playing through inferior builds of two games that were previously enhanced for said hardware. Push Square shared the following screenshot of the Borderlands 3 listing on PS Now; note the PS4 tag in the top-left corner next to the blue PS Now icon.
Unfortunately, this serves as further evidence that PS Now will remain PS4-centric for the foreseeable future. That much is especially clear when considering the lack of PS5 games attached to the service. It makes sense given the PS5's relative newness, but why can't Sony bolster the PS Now library with upgrades to games that subscribers can already access?
The publisher also failed to clarify the download/streaming options in its announcement for PlayStation Now's April 2021 lineup. Such an omission exemplifies one of the PlayStation brand's many problems of late - miscommunication or the lack of communication in general. The company's failures on this front specifically came to a head last week when it confirmed that digital storefronts for the PSP, PS3, and PS Vita will soon go offline. Worse still, PS Vita developers weren't informed of the coming store closures.
Borderlands 3 and Marvel's Avengers are available to play on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: Push Square