2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man is coming to the PlayStation 5 but getting it won’t be simple. Sony has confirmed during an interview that Spider-Man Remastered – its upgraded PlayStation 5 version – will not be sold as a standalone game or even be given as a free upgrade for existing PlayStation 4 Spider-Man owners.
Instead, the only possible way to purchase it will be through the Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition bundle for $70. The bundle contains the 2018 Spider-Man Remastered Edition and the upcoming spinoff which when sold on its own only costs $50.
The problem is, as with a few other cross-gen titles, there are actually two variants of the 2018 Spider-Man – the old PlayStation 4 edition which has been released in 2018 and a new version of the game called Spider-Man Remastered. The remastered version will feature particular next-gen enhancements to benefit from the power of the PlayStation 5 such as ray tracing and faster load times.
A few developers including Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red are allowing its players to upgrade to the next-gen editions of their games with no costs. Other developers such as 2K Games and 505 Games are charging its players for their next-gen enhanced editions.
The perplexity lies in the fact that all the next-gen consoles including the two versions of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S are backwards compatible. This means players who don’t want to spend money to buy the next-gen version of the game can still play the current-gen versions of those games on their new consoles.
The only difference is that backwards compatible games will not have the improvements and enhancements of the next-gen consoles. One good example is Cyberpunk 2077 which is supported by the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One upon release but it will also launch a free next-gen edition for its existing players later on.
Sony is complicating this problem by providing free upgrades in some situations and paid ones in others. Players who bought Spider-Man: Miles Morales for the PlayStation 4 will get a free next-gen edition upgrade. Players who already own the original Spider-Man 2018 will have to buy it again for the PlayStation 5 assuming that they want the remastered edition’s performance enhancements and graphical improvements. And as an additional snag, the only way to buy this remastered version will be through the expensive $70 bundle.
With all these things taken into consideration, there are only three ways to play Spider-Man on the PlayStation 5:
- Buy the standard Spider-Man edition for the PlayStation 4 which will run on the PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility. However, it will not have the PlayStation 5’s improvements of the remastered edition.
- Buy Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 for $50 then pay again an extra $20 to upgrade it to its Ultimate Edition to receive Spider-Man Remastered. However, save games will not be carried on and players will have to start the spin-off game all over again.
- Buy Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for $70 and get both games hassle-free.
