Capcom’s recent showcase gave fans exciting new looks at current and upcoming games. It showed off new information on Exoprimal, confirmed a Dragon’s Dogma anniversary showcase, and took a deep dive into all things Resident Evil. New footage for the Resident Evil 4 Remake was shown, Resident Evil Village’s Winters Expansion and Gold Edition was confirmed, and Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7’s PS5 upgrades were announced.
Given that Resident Evil 7 essentially breathed new life into the franchise and the Resident Evil 2 Remake basically sets a gold standard for remakes, there’s no doubt fans were excited when these upgrades shadow dropped. It’s noteworthy that some fans aren’t happy though about the Resident Evil upgrades because it retroactively changes the system requirements on PC, but there’s even more of a catch when it comes to Resident Evil 7 on PS5 specifically.
In short, PS5 owners have had to pay for Resident Evil 7 to get the upgrade for free. What this means in this context is that any PS5 owner who has Resident Evil 7 through the PS Plus Collection, as pointed out by Redditor BenjaminMadoran, cannot get the upgrade without buying the game. The PS Plus Collection was made available for PS5 owners at launch, making several wildly popular games free and giving those who invested in a PS5 some of the best PlayStation classics to play. Now, this feels like this “free” aspect is biting back.
Many aren’t happy with Sony about this, while others understand that it is a business move. Still, it’s not the best look to have a game basically be permanently free on PS5 (PS Plus Collection has only lost one game since launch), but the only version of the game that can be played is the PS4 version.
With these next-gen upgrades, players are mainly getting an increase in graphical fidelity and frame rate, including Ray Tracing options. The PS5 upgrade also further comes with 3D audio and DualSense support, which would no doubt trump up the horror of Resident Evil 7. If anything, this makes anyone who does have it through PS Plus Collection more likely to buy it, but that would also seemingly undercut the entire purpose of the PS Plus Collection.
It remains to be seen if this is rectified in any manner, but just like Resident Evil is moving forward with RE: Village DLC, PS Plus is too. The PS Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium tiers are officially live in North America, giving fans a huge library of PS1, PS2, PSP, PS3, PS4, and PS5 games to play—with more on the way.
Resident Evil 7 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
