Xbox Throws Shade At PS5 Following Spider-Man Upgrade Debacle

Sony's upgrade policy is a maze.

Sony’s messaging and communication have been awful leading up to the PS5, while I feel MS has been pretty good. They have been smart giving the upgrades a name with smart delivery, it’s easy to understand.

@TheGamerKing I expect it to extend to all 1st party games that they bother remastering. GoW, HZD, GoT, TLOU2, maybe more.

@TheGamerKing Maybe, but simple buying and playing of your games across different consoles is far more relevant today.

Just handing a copy of your game to your friend isn't something anyone buying the discless PS5 will be doing.

I was always going to get both consoles but Sony are being incredibly tone deaf at the moment.
There's no way I feel happy purchasing a PS5 at launch when Microsoft are offering consumers so much more choice with much greater features (and the stronger hardware)
That said it's good Sony take a hit here. I love all games, so if this gets Sony to turn their act around then it's win win in my book.

@TheGamerKing Hopefully, but Sony have a history of arrogance (not that it matters to me personally, I don't play any of those games on playstation).

@TheGamerKing So it’s proved now that you are another 🦄 apologist that comes here to defend with excuses and gets exposed every single time. Xbox IS pro-consumer right now DEAL WITH IT! 😂🤮

It’s really sad the cross gen pay-again remaster of Spiderman won’t even support cross-gen progression when it’s literally built on same engine and assets. 😭😭😭

https://wccftech.com/ps5-spider-man-no-free-upgrade/

Finally, after a long time, Microsoft has shot back!

@Senua
You mean "apologist"?

Well it made me giggle 🤣

@pip_muzz That’s what I’m hoping for, had a PS4, PSVR this gen but just feels like Sony aren’t even trying with the PS5 atm. Where as Xbox are really selling everything at the moment. Hoping Xbox do really well to start with and Sony don’t do as well as they expected to give them a kick up the a*se and get back on track as their first party titles are unmatched in my opinion.

LMFAO😂

No, I can't think of more to say.

I have a question. Spider-Man PS5 remaster reportedly has new animations, suits and other content as well as better graphics and performance, so I kinda understand why they might charge something for it.

My question is does Smart Delivery do this sort of thing or just up the res and FPS onto the better hardware? Is there more to it than that?

@Senua To be fair according to Push square you can still play the game on your PS5 with backwards compatibility and probably upgraded resolution if you already own it I believe. And if they are remastering the game properly it’s a great game so it’s not all that bad paying the extra £20 or so if you want a better looking version of the game.

@Fenbops Smart Delivery means when you upgrade to a next-gen version, the title will be optimised with better effects, fps, fidelity, SSD optimisation, LoD, richer textures, wider draw distance and all other remaster features all for free. This also applies to the cross-gen progression which will also be available for free.

@BigP To be fair, Xbox Series X users will also get the Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 remaster for free for which Playground/Coalition developers are essentially working on additional visual fidelity features like more effects, richer textures, better lighting and AO, higher LoD, wider draw distance, SSD optimisation, upgrading cutscenes, better multiplayer etc.

During a recent Inside Unreal livestream, Gears 5 developer The Coalition revealed some of the new visual features coming to the Xbox Series X version of the game.

Higher resolution textures
Improved anisotropic filtering
Higher-resolution volume fog
Higher quality depth of field
Extremely far draw distances with high level of object detail
Shadow resolution and shadow distance
High-quality screen-space reflections
Post processing improvements like bloom, lens flare, light shafts, ect.
That said, The Coalition is also working on some new Xbox Series X features, including Screen Space Global Illumination, higher particle counts, and yes, the ability to play MP at up to 120fps.

Contact Shadows

This allows extremely realistic shadowing as each pixel on screen traces back to the light source to eliminate any shadow biasing artifacts or fill in missing shadows.
Screen Space Global Illumination

Integrated from UE4 4.24 this feature allows us to achieve full realtime GI at 4K/60fps.
SSGI's AO pass replaces the more traditional SSAO giving a much more naturalistic broad real-time AO.
Higher particle counts

Our particle counts are 50% higher than PC Ultra spec.
Real-Time Cinematics in 4K 60fps

Xbox One X cinematics were 4K 30fps
Investigating 120fps Multiplayer support

It's one remaster game thing. Where the PS4 games are getting free upgrade and are all the 3rd party games are such as Dirt 5 like on Xbox

Now if we start seeing a bunch of remasters for 1st party games that on Xbox would just be free upgrades then yeah can see the issue

@BigP It’s a big shame that even a smaller studio like CD Projekt RED with blockbuster Witcher 3 and the most anticipated title of decade Cyberpunk 2077 will also provide the remaster natively built for next-gen consoles for free next year aside from the usual backcompat version that everyone will get to play this year.

@Senua cheers! I take it it also depends on the actual devs and what sort of upgrades they want to bring via smart delivery?

I have Yakuza Like a dragon preordered with smart delivery so can’t wait to see the benefits it brings.

@Senua Great for Xbox users then! Getting one myself😅 But think this one instance is not all that bad, guess people will vote with their wallets anyway...

@TheGamerKing HAHA GO ON APOLOGISE FOR 10hr DLC expansion and next-gen patch falsely advertised as a whole new game that you need to pay extra again. The true colors of pushsquare sheepos are slowly getting exposed in broad daylight. 🦄🤮

@graysoncharles It’s essentially the same assets and engine with probably additional ray tracing and better load times.

The Xbox social media team has been amazing. Loving them calling out the shortcomings of the competition.

@Senua wow that’s some amazing upgrades for Gears 5. Very impressive if this is the sort of thing Smart Delivery can deliver.

@TheGamerKing Xbox's tweet is not a lie, it says that you buy the game once on any Xbox console and you get the best available version on any console that you own which is true and Smart Delivery includes remasters as well, e.g., Gears 5.

On PS5 you don't get the best available version, you have to buy the remaster if you want the best available version on PS5 even if you own the PS4 version of the same game. That's the big difference. On PS5, you pay extra for the best available version even for first-party games. On Xbox, the best available version is free for every first-party game.

I feel that regardless of what’s been offered as a upgrade for the ps5 version. Spiderman & Miles Morales has essentially been built on PS4 architecture, which imo should be that the spiderman should be offered the free upgrade onto ps5. Absolute joke what Sony are doing, whilst Microsoft & the Witcher developers are offering for free there own upgrades on their games.if you have the base spiderman game on PS4, you would be able to get the enhanced version of it for the PS4. This is just a way to get people to double dip on the game.

@TheGamerKing Sony is clear, you can play the exact same PS4 Spiderman with zero changes on PS5. Only the paid Remastered edition profits from upgrades.

@TheGamerKing No the intent of the tweet was to throw shade at how complicated Sony's backwards compatibility policies are with PS5 games because Spider-Man PS4 is already playable natively on PS5 but is also getting a PS5 remaster that's bundled with another PS5 game that doesn't have cross gen progression from the PS4 game but it's basically the PS4 game but upscaled specifically for PS5 even if the PS5 can play the PS4 game

@TheGamerKing It’s a big f’ing shame that a small studio like CD Projekt have promised free upgrade to the next-gen version which they will build ground up with ray tracing and richer fidelity remastered and optimised that will truly push the hardware for next-gen consoles that’s slated for 2021 release and also same goes for the free Witcher 3 upgrade. First the “believing in generation” false promise fake narratives and now this, seems like 🦄s will never learn a good lesson even when they get destroyed everytime by their overlords when reality finally strikes back. DON’T APOLOGISE, DEMAND BETTER!
Otherwise it’s not going to be for “just one game” which claims to be the main first party console seller.

@Deadcow won't count on that. Sony is dominant worldwide except in the US. They have the big enough fanbase to pull this kind of stuff and get away with it.

@Kamalen You can also play Cyberpunk backcompat for free and you will also get the next-gen ground up remaster for free next year. It’s a shame a smaller less profitable studio like CD Projekt can promise that for the most anticipated game of the decade which they can have easily profited from otherwise. A recent first party game getting free backcompat is not a huge deal and should be under normal expectations.

@Senua Yes it's sad. But this is the way... of the monopoly.

@Royalblues yeah I got my PS4 on release with killzone. I haven’t seen any bundles for either new console though. Guess they just ain’t bothering.

@Royalblues There’s a separate article showing the list of console launch exclusive titles of XSX. Please refer to that.

Xbox with the uppercut, Sony doesn't know what to do..

“I don’t know, I’m sorry for having an unpopular opinion, but I’m not feeling the outrage. Spider-Man is 2 years old. It makes sense to give free upgrades for new games so that sales aren’t split and lost, but why are we entitled to free upgrades on older games. It’s nice if companies like cdpr want to do it for free, but why should we expect Sony and Remedy to follow suit? MS can boast that they’re doing it for free because quite frankly they’ve got almost nothing from the last 3 or 4 years to remaster.”

Although I do think Sony should probably make the PS4 standalone version free, this point above has a fair point 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Jacko11
I wouldn't say I expect it, but I think the competition has raised the stakes of expectations. It makes Sony look not consumer friendly to a lot of people or just plain stubborn, and maybe they are. Sony seems to be taking a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach, while Microsoft seems to be trying to redefine the landscape. So again, I can't say that I do expect it, but it sure as hell is a great gesture, and makes me want to support companies that do it, a la CD Projekt Red.

I read both Push Square and Pure XBox and I'm pretty sure all PS4 games (or all but ones needing accessories) can play on PS5 and will be getting performance boosts and such. I'm pretty sure this will be the same or similar enough to what Xbox calls Smart Delivery. Just feels like MS have marketed it better. Will be more obvious when someone starts comparing the two version of the upgrading.

I think Spiderman has been done differently though and is somewhere between a Smart Delivery and a remaster, most likely because MM will probably be built using these upgraded assets and Insomniac probably thought its worth using for rebuilding the Spiderman game and make more money.
Guess we find out once more info comes out - and this is Sony's downfall at the moment. Spiderman possibly could (and probably will) look better than anything from the Smart Delivery but unless they show it it leaves MS open to come out with childish playground ridicule on Sony's behalf.

Personally I can't see the Sony PR team surviving for much longer!

@graysoncharles horizon 2’s lead development is on PS5 and being scaled down to PS4. You can see that just by watching the footage. It looks amazing...

Lol, now im 100% buying xbox sx.
Not just becouse of this, but they have bethesda now lol.

Sony is almost a meme at this point.

Every day they do something as stupid or more stupid than the day before. 🤦‍♂️

And it’s hilarious to me. 😂

Sheesh, Sony has been working with Activision too much with their timed exclusives. This is Activision levels of sleeziness for paying for upgrades...

Hahahaah! Even as someone who will probably never buy an actual Xbox and will have 2 PS5's, even I can admit that's pretty hilarious! The Xbox social team has been on a good run as of late!

@Royalblues Not seen that since Hexic on the 360. Neither my One, One X, Switch, or PS4 came with a game.

@Jacko11 2 year old games are not "old" - they don't need to be "remastered." XBox is following how PC has operated for decades where a game may receive upgrades to keep up with newer hardware. You don't "fix up better versions" of the game every few years to resell them again. That's not how it's ever worked on PC. That's not how it works on XBox. Consoles used to work this way because each generation was a whole new architecture and the game needed to be remade for a whole new platform. Modern consoles work like PCs, but Sony has not got that memo and is operating as though it's 2013 again....probably because they saw Nintendo get away with it.

That's what's wrong here. There's "the PC way" of doing releases. You make a game, like Spiderman and sell it for 2, 5, 7, 15 years, and you may choose to upgrade it with hardware to encourage even more sales. You don't sell new versions every few years. You live on the long tail sales if your game is good.

@KelticDevil what I truly can't comprehend is the sheer number of fans who still feel that paying for the same game with every hardware upgrade is somehow a good thing and that anyone wanting upgrades is "entitled." Imagine having to rebuy games for enhancements every time nVidia releases a new video card....

@Fenbops xbss comes with gpu. Does that count?😆

@KelticDevil sony, the florida of gaming, as of late.

@PhhhCough

Or Trump-esque in their ability to sound like a complete moron every time they say something.

Jim Ryan is a plague on PlayStation. I called it years ago. He has Don Mattrick-like issues.

@eggsbox I don’t plan on buying a ps5 but I was definitely happy about that

From what I’ve read part of the proceeds from Spider-Man miles morales will be donated to blm,I had the game preordered until I read that and I canceled my preorder,when they start talking about overthrowing this country,and the riots and looting I’m not donating to that organization

@StonyKL assuming most games PS4 will play on PS5 the ‘enhancements’ will be like a PS4 Pro boost mod, the frame rate will be a little more stable if you’re lucky dynamic res will top out at whatever is was built for often 1440p.

That a big difference from Backward compatible games playing on series X with double the frame rate or more to 60/120. Auto HDR added and rendered at full 4K. And that’s just the regular enhancements not anything patched like gears.

But neither of the things is what Xbox calls smart delivery. It literally means you get the best version of the game for the console you’re playing on.

imagine if Xbox locked the Series X update for Gears 5 behind a $50 purchase of Gears Tactics, and then charged you an additional $20 to even play it. Thats what Sony is pulling here.

@Shujja33 good for you.

@AlexSora89 This was my first thought! lol it's a long-overdue clapback over the "how to share a game" thing. Sony is really dropping the ball right now, hope they pull it together soon...