New PS Now games are PS4 only, no PS5 upgrade path

Sony is big Playstation now This week’s update is one of the best in a long time, with Marvel’s Avengers and Borderlands 3 both part of the lineup, exemplifying the company’s commitment to the subscription service. However, this is also a demonstration of the mess of the manufacturer’s membership model, because despite the two titles featuring free upgrades from PS4 to PS5, you will only be able to play the latest generation version.

There was some confusion about this earlier in the week, so we decided to give it a try. Using our PS Now subscription on PS5, we were able to stream the PS4 versions of each of the aforementioned titles. You can also download the games to your hard drive, but you can alone download the latest generation versions; if you want to “upgrade” to the PS5 edition, you will need to pay efficiently for the game.

PS Now, as it is now, is a PS4 service – there are no PS5 games included. However, we think this once again underscores the messy transition that Sony’s console is going through. With Marvel’s Avengers and Borderlands 3 offering native PS5 versions with free upgrades, many PS Now subscribers had rightly assumed they would have access to next-gen ports as well. This is not the case.

It’s still a good update for the subscription service, but maybe it’s a reminder that the platform owner needs to get back to the drawing board here a bit. Despite efforts to improve the quality of PS Now – which, to be honest, has had some success – it still doesn’t feel like the company takes service seriously. Hopefully by the end of the year the organization will have everything overhauled, so that misunderstandings like this cease to exist.