PS4 And PS5 Spider-Man Situation Is A Mess

As if it needed even more negative attention, Sony's PlayStation 5 might end up ruffling the feathers of a certain intersection of PS5 owners and Spider-Man's fans. Marvel's Spider-Man for the PS4 has garnered mostly positive reviews and fans are looking forward to the Spider-Man: Miles Morales launch for both PlayStation generations. While it will, of course, be possible to play the PS4 versions of these two games on the PS5, gamers might have to pay extra depending on what they're buying or have already bought.

There is a Spider-Man for the PS4 and there will be Spider-Man: Miles Morales for the PS4. There is a Miles Morales game for the PS5 but also a Miles Morales Ultimate Edition, also for the PS5, which includes the Remastered version of the Spider-Man (Peter Parker) PS4 title. Gamers may have assumed that their Spider-Man PS4 edition will get an upgrade for the PS5 but that isn't the case, at least not for free.

Here's the gist of what a Sony representative told Kotaku. If you bought the PS4 version of Miles Morales, you can upgrade to the PS5 version for free but that's all that you're getting. If you want to also have the Remastered Peter Parker game on the PS5, you'll have to pay $20 to upgrade that to the Ultimate Edition.

If, however, all you bought is the PS4 Marvel's Spider-Man, you basically have no upgrade path to the PS5. To even get the Remastered version, you'll have to buy the full $70 Miles Morales Ultimate Edition. Of course, you can also play the original PS4 game on the PS5 thanks to backward compatibility.

That Sony won't be selling a standalone Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered is a rather disappointing revelation for owners of the PS4 original. It is undoubtedly the company's strategy to sell more copies of the Ultimate Edition since those buying a PS5 and the Miles Morales title for the console might as well get two for one. Whether it will sit well with those gamers, however, is a different question.