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How much will it cost to play the Director’s Cut of Ghost of Tsushima? Well, it varies, but it costs more if you want to play on PS5.

Remember when PlayStation upset people with its upgrade shenanigans for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered?

Sure, you could play the PS4 version of the game on your shiny new PS5, but if you wanted to play the upgraded version, with improved graphics, ray-tracing, and performance mode? You’d need to buy the Miles Morales edition on PS5 – or on PS4, because that one does include an upgrade – edition to get it.

Players who already owned Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 were, sadly, out of luck. (And  some of them were, typically, pretty upset about it.)

What do we think? Has Sony learned a lesson from this experience, changed tack to prevent upsetting the fans further?

Er, no. It hasn’t.

The Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut was leaked-and-then-quickly-revealed recently. It features all of the stuff in the original game, plus the Legends multiplayer DLC and a new single-player expansion area, the Island of Iki. (And some of the usual tat, digital artbook, etc.)

Which sounds good, but then, once again, it gets complicated. Here’s what it costs to upgrade to the Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut:

  • To buy the Director’s Cut outright on PS5 – 70 quid, to you
  • To upgrade from the base game on PS4 to the Director’s Cut on PS4 – £15.99
  • To upgrade from the base game on PS4 to the Director’s Cut on PS5 – £24.99
  • To upgrade from the Director’s Cut on PS4 to the PS5 version – £9

So that’s essentially a £9 PlayStation 5 tax, both for people who already bought Ghost of Tsushima on PlayStation 4 and are jumping straight to PlayStation 5, or for people who plan to upgrade on PlayStation 4 and make the jump later.

Presumably, the features must be earth-shattering for that additional cost?

  • Dynamic 4K resolution targeting 60 FPS
  • Haptic feedback and adaptive triggers
  • 3D sound (with stereo headphones)
  • Option to transfer saves from PS4 to PS5
  • Lip-sync corrected on Japanese voiceover

Er, no. The earth is very much still intact.

We’re not usually ones to join in with “the gamers” getting upset about how much games cost – They are expensive to make! Developers should get properly compensated! – but including basic features like save transfers as part of that PS5 “upgrade” does feel pretty gross.

The corrected Japanese lip-sync is a welcome addition, however. And PlayStation says that it’s only possible on the PS5 due to its advanced performance capabilities, so there’s at least a good reason for that. (We had always assumed it was just some vaguely racist attempt to “authentically” recreate the “feel” of ropey English-language dubbing of old samurai movies, to be honest.)

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut launches on August 20, 2021. How much you’re prepared to pay for it is entirely up to you.


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