Following recent updates for Destiny 2, Control, and great Nioh games, PlayStation 5 owners are in a golden age of cross-genre gaming. But if you’re not careful, you could end up playing the PlayStation 4 version of a cross-genre game on PS5. Horror!
The newest Microsoft consoles, Xbox Series X and S, serve the next generation version of a game (if it exists and if the developer has not closed it behind an additional fee) through an automatic process called “Smart Delivery”. It may sound like a no-brainer – a term coined in a Seattle meeting room full of major communications – but it’s actually quite useful. You can reasonably claim that Smart Delivery is one of the defining features of the two state-of-the-art Microsoft consoles.
On PlayStation, however, the process does not happen automatically. It’s too easy to download and start the PlayStation 4 version of a game that has existed for generations (such as Bugsnax, Control, or just renovated Nioh 2).
As a rule, pay attention to the text below the icon of a game on the main dashboard. If it says “PS4” next to the title, you’ve downloaded the PS4 version. If there is an arrow next to “PS4”, it means that not downloaded the PS4 version, but could easily touch the “X” button too quickly. (Yes, you can have both the PS4 and PS5 versions of a game installed on your console.) If it doesn’t say “PS4” at all, it means you’ve downloaded the PS5 version. Good job.
To move to the PS5 version of, say, Bugsnax, simply hover your mouse over the game icon and press down. You will see a three point menu. Click on it. Then select “PS5 | Complete | Bugsnax. “After downloading, you should be good to go.
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The process is not always so smooth. Sometimes, with disc-based PS4 games, you may need to perform an additional set of steps. Last week, Sony pushed an update which allegedly fixed a pervasive issue in which the PS5 would download the PS4 version of a game – even if there was a PS5 version. After the upgrade, this should not happen again.
But if it is do what?
Lua Nioh 2 for example, which many of us have been playing with since its launch last week Nioh Collection aroused renewed interest in the series. Last November, Team Ninja has announced a free upgrade for both games, which supports 4K resolution, framerates of up to 120 fps and allows you to continue saving files. But if you have installed Nioh 2 on the PS5 via disk before last week’s system update, you still won’t automatically receive that PS5 version. Here’s how to fix it:
- You should see a Nioh 2 icon from the main dashboard of the PS5 on the Games page. (If no icon appears for this, go to the game library and start Nioh 2. You only need to upload it for a split second to create the dashboard icon.)
- Place your cursor over the icon and scroll down to the three-point menu on the game page.
- Click on it, then click “View product”.
- You will be taken to Nioh 2PlayStation Store page. Opening that three-point menu should display a list of all available versions of the game: Nioh 2 – PS4, Nioh Collection, Nioh 2 Remastered (PS5 update). Click on the last one.
- If yours Nioh 2 the disk is in the drive, you will see an option to download the free update.
PlayStation also brings an additional complication: a small suite of state-of-the-art games that have received PS5 updates but have not received dedicated PS5 versions. For example, since the launch of PS5, both The ghost of Tsushima and God of War have been updated for the PS5. Both now run at a great 60 fps on the PS5, but they are still (extremely beautiful) PS4 technical games. The easiest way to tell exactly what versions of a game are there is to browse the PlayStation Store page for a game that interests you. If you click on the three-point menu, you should see a list of all available versions. Only those with a specific PS5 version will display a PS5 version available for purchase.
Xbox’s smart delivery feature sounds pretty good right now, right?
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