The PlayStation Plus version of Cities: Skylines is not eligible for the free upgrade to the newly released PlayStation 5 remaster, which offers free upgrades for players who purchased the PlayStation 4 version. Cities: Skylines joins the likes of Final Fantasy VII: Remake and Man of Medan for PlayStation Plus as free games that do not support upgrades to their PlayStation 5 counterparts.Cities: Skylines for PlayStation 4 joined the PlayStation Plus monthly lineup of games for May 2020. Nearly three years later, Cities: Skylines publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order announced the city-builder would come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S as Cities: Skylines Remastered. Cities: Skylines would come to the latest generation of PlayStation and Xbox platforms on February 15 with 25 buildable tiles, UI improvements, a map editor, and better performance compared to last-generation versions of the game. Additionally, Xbox Game Pass subscribers have instant access to Cities: Skylines Remastered for Xbox Series X/S. PlayStation 4 players who previously redeemed Cities: Skylines on PlayStation Plus are ineligible for an upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version, however.Shortly after the launch of Cities: Skylines Remastered, Paradox Interactive's official Cities: Skylines Twitter account confirmed the PlayStation Plus version is not eligible for a free upgrade to the new PlayStation 5 version. Gamers are unable to access the upgrade at all from the PlayStation Plus version, and Paradox Interactive states that the PlayStation 4 version must be purchased to access the free upgrade. If desired, gamers may purchase Cities: Skylines Remastered directly from the PlayStation 5's PlayStation Store instead of upgrading from the PlayStation 4 version.
The official Cities: Skylines Remastered Q&A confirms the physical PlayStation 4 disc version is ineligible for the free upgrade as well. Unfortunately, save data from the base versions of Cities: Skylines does not transfer over to Cities: Skylines Remastered since cross-saves are not supported. This means PlayStation Plus owners of the game will not have access to prior save data after booting up the remaster on PlayStation 5.
These upgrade policies are a source of frustration for PlayStation Plus subscribers looking forward to new remasters of their existing games. Despite their disappointment, some users understand why a copy of Cities: Skylines must be purchased to access the free upgrade while others believe the upgrade practice should include a greater portion of existing players.
Cities: Skylines Remastered contains compelling technical improvements that were not possible to implement on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As a result, many of the remaster's improvements are unavailable to existing PlayStation Plus owners of Cities: Skylines. Buying a digital copy from the PlayStation Store appears to be the only way forward right now for fans of the popular city-building game.
Cities: Skylines is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
