Gamers Don't Want to Pay Extra for 4K and 60 FPS in Ghost of Tsushima
The price of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut on PS5 has electrified the fans. In their view, asking money for visual upgrades such as 4K resolution and 60fps is „dishonourable” and „in poor taste”.
Announced on Thursday, Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut is coming to PS4 and PS5. Its main attraction is expected to be the single-player expansion called Iki Island. The whole thing will be available to purchase as a separate full price product ($69.99 or $59.99 for the PS5/PS4 version respectively) or, if you already own Ghost of Tsushima, as an upgrade for a bit less (we wrote about the details here). And while the former case is understandable, because we are buying a new game, in the latter Sony caused quite a confusion. And while players see no problem with paying $19.99 for the story expansion and a bundle of digital goods - that's the price you'll find on PlayStation Store when upgrading to the PS4 version of the game - having to pay another $10 for the PlayStation 5 edition seems to be a bit excessive to them.
Especially since the visual improvements announced for Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut for this Sony console - 4K resolution and 60 fps - are often offered for free by other companies. We're talking primarily about Microsoft and its Smart Delivery service. And while the PS5 version of last year's Sucker Punch hit will also feature haptic vibrations and adaptive trigger support thanks to the DualSense controller, $10 is too high a price for many for the new features. Sony seemed to have anticipated the problem, as the PlayStation 5 release also included lip-sync for Japanese, but this only served to further anger the gamers, as there's no way to explain the lack of this feature in Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut on PS4.
The Internet boiled. Gamers on Reddit have announced that they will "vote with their wallets" and simply not buy the refreshed adventures of Jin until they are 80% cheaper (via ftkmatte). Others fear that if Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut sells well despite everything, Sony - and other companies - will get the message that gamers are willing to pay extra for such features (via MikeOretta). A comment from user Fakebrain seems particularly interesting, stating that:
"(...) if there is anyone who should be doing this for free it's them. This should be a fantastic opportunity to show the power of the PS5, to show the value in the playstation ecosystem we've invested in and to show us that we can still purchase PS4 games for the PS5 without concerns like this."
It's hard to predict whether Sony will change its decision to any degree. Practice shows, however, that "inflated" priced games, such as Demon's Souls Remake, become cheaper quite quickly, and a few months after the release they can be purchased in the official distribution for the "normal" full price. But even if we take advantage of the discount, a certain bad aftertaste remains.
Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut will be released on August 20, exclusively on PlayStation 4 and 5.
