Back in 2019, developer Frogwares launched the Lovecraftian adventure game The Sinking City, and while the game garnered mixed feedback, it still managed to get a committed following of players. Soon, the game will be receiving a second chance at life, as The Sinking City will be making its next-gen debut today. Frogwares has officially revealed that The Sinking City’s PlayStation 5 launch date will be today, Friday, February 19, 2021.
The developer made the announcement via releasing a new trailer for The Sinking City comparing its gameplay to how it looked on the PlayStation 4. As can be witnessed in the trailer, The Sinking City on the PlayStation 5 is receiving massive updates, upgrading the graphics to 4K resolution and hitting 60 FPS. Sadly, for those who already purchased the game on the PlayStation 4 and want to try out the next-gen features, though, the developer has verified that there will be no free upgrades.
This is unlucky, but it is out of the hands of the developer. Frogwares reveals that the ongoing legal problems with The Sinking City are stopping it from giving a free upgrade to PlayStation 4 owners. Essentially, the PlayStation 4 edition of The Sinking City had a different publisher and is therefore listed on the PlayStation Store with a different game ID. This makes it unattainable for Frogwares to give a typical free next-gen upgrade at this time.
Being unable to upgrade to the current-gen version without any cost may keep some players from trying the PlayStation 5 edition of the game. However, those who have not played the title yet or who have not tried its DLC expansion may want to give it a shot.
It has been confirmed by developer Frogwares that, alongside the visual upgrades and PlayStation 5 DualSense support, the next-gen edition of The Sinking City will also include the Merciful Madness DLC expansion.
The Sinking City received mixed reviews, as mentioned above, but some of the enhancements in the next-gen edition could go a long way in addressing criticisms fans had about the original game. In addition, players who are huge fans of Lovecraftian mythology might be able to forget some of the game’s flaws and love the game more than others.
Others might want to wait and see if the game’s legal situation is ever worked out and keep their hopes up that there might one day be a free next-gen upgrade to be made available.
