Spider-Man PS5 remaster locked behind Miles Morales purchase

Sony is restricting access to Spider-Man's PS5 remaster to help justify purchase of the new Miles Morales spin-off game.

As many publishers like Ubisoft, EA, and CD Projekt RED offer free next-gen game upgrades, Sony is under fire for how it's handling the Spider-Man transitions to next-gen. In a statement to Kotaku, Sony clarified its somewhat confusing plan for the web crawler.

Sony is about to release two new Spider-Man games: Spider Man Miles Morales, which is coming to both PS4 and PS5, and a remaster of the original 2018 Spider-Man game on PS4. Turns out Sony isn't selling the remaster by itself. You have to buy Spider-Man Miles Morales in order to access the next-gen remaster of the first game. It doesn't matter if you bought the 2018 Spider-Man on PS4; you won't get a free upgrade to the remastered version, and you don't even get the option to buy the game.

The Spider-Man remaster is locked behind Miles Morales purchases. It can't be purchased separately.

There's two ways to get the Spider-Man remaster:

• Buy Miles Morales Collector's Edition on PS5 for $70
• Buy Miles Morales on PS4. Get the free PS5 upgrade. Then pay extra to unlock the Spider-Man remaster.

Here's the full statement delivered to Kotaku:

Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered is an enhanced version of Marvel's Spider-Man, and is included as part of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for the PlayStation 5. In addition, players who purchase Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PlayStation 4 can upgrade at no additional cost to the PS5 version of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and can take advantage of a paid-upgrade to download Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered.

There are no plans currently to offer Marvel's-Spider-Man: Remastered as a standalone. Players with a copy of Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4 can purchase Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition to experience Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered on PS5. Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4 also will be backwards compatible on PS5.

This is just bad form on Sony's part. It's main competitor, Microsoft, is doing everything it can to make transitions seamless and free, and Sony is pulling strange moves like this.

The motivation is clear; Sony wants to eke out more purchases of the $70 collector's edition by adding value to justify the $10 price bump. The messaging is off, though, and Sony would be wise to offer more clarification.

Insomniac also confirmed that Spider-Man's PS4 saves won't be compatible with the PS5 version. This actually makes sense on a technical level given the games are likely different on a code level. There may not be smart delivery-style asset upgrades here, but a completely rebuilt next-gen version of the 2018 game.