Back at Gamescom, major publishers were falling over themselves to announce an upgrade path from current generation machines to next generation ones, and encourage more sales. During their press conference, Sony rode this wave, announcing a wide promotion that sees games such as Assassin’s Creed 4, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Watch Dogs (these the highlighted games) receiving a “significantly discounted price” through PSN, should you want to upgrade.
While Activision came out with a proposed $10/€10/£10 upgrade price for CoD:Ghosts, and many retailers like Amazon and Game have a guaranteed value a trade in policy along these lines, we now have details on both Battlefield 4 and Sony’s offering.
Fergal Gara, SCE’s UK Managing Director, previously stated that “It may work in several different ways, but I believe it will work from disc to digital, so you can buy the PS3 disc and then access the PS4 digital file,” as he spoke to VideoGamer.com. Following this there was a lot of confusion about how exactly this would be done, but Chris Owens, Community Manager by the handle of Envisager on the EU PlayStation Community Forums, has now gone into further detail.
There are two main upgrade paths available in the UK, and he first highlighted the UK specific method via Game, with a £40 trade in promised on a variety of games, before also speaking to the worldwide promotion:
Inside marked physical copies of Battlefield 4 for PlayStation 3 there will be a voucher with a unique code printed on it. This code will allow you the one-time offer of buying a digital version of Battlefield 4 via the PlayStation Store for only £10.
This is actually one of the most beautifully generous systems I could have imagined, letting people literally own Battlefield 4 on two platforms and keep the PS3 copy to do with as they please.
UPDATE: The Battlefield Blog has spoken about other regions, outlining more retailer deals in various countries, as well as stating that the PSN upgrade pricing will be $10/€10/£10, depending on the local currency. The codes in the box will last until March 28, 2014, and the entry is labelled as “All Retailers” indicating that these will be a limited run, which may be at a more premium price point. We’ll see.
You will have to beware that this seems to be a limited promotion, and you will want to be sure to get one of these marked boxes in particular. What this will look like and who will stock them, we don’t yet know.
UPDATE: What follows was simply a case of unfortunate wording. You will be able to transfer your stats and progression from PS3 to PS4 regardless of whether you have a Premium DLC bundle or not. If you do have Premium at the time of your transfer, then this will also transfer, as outlined on EA’s site and the following image:
However, it also sounds like the transfer of your multiplayer progress will hinge on the purchase of a Premium DLC pack, as Envisager replied to a question from xLew– with the following:
If you purchased Premium then the DLC and stats will transfer one time only from PS3 > PS4.
Though we don’t know yet if this process will hold true for Ubisoft, Activision, Warner Brothers and all of the others involved in Sony’s promotion, it would seem to me that an in-box code is the simplest solution.
Via MusterBuster.
boeboe
Now we just need to know how long the code lasts before it expires.
arrybags
If Ea do the same for FIFA, and ubi the same for Black Flag, i may have to buy this gen. You can pre-order most games for £35 at the moment, so adding a tenner still makes it about the same as pre-ordering on PS4.
Bilbo_bobbins
Thats a total rip off if you have to buy Premium. It means paying £40 for PS3, £10 upgrade to PS4, then another £40 for premium.
If the transfer was free, without buying Premium then I would have done this, but I wont be now.
Stefan L
Sorry, this was a case of unfortunate wording, and we’ve been able to clear it up. You can transfer your stats whether you have Premium or not. If you do have Premium, that will be transferrable at the same time.
Bilbo_bobbins
ah right ok, that makes sense. Thanks for double checking. I will definitely be going for this then. Saves having the disc for loading up my favourite game too.
bigchrissyc
Thats a pretty sweet deal. Hopefully a full list of all upgradable titles will be released soon, so we know which titles to buy this gen, that can be upgraded and which we will just purchase for next gen only.
BrendanCalls
Hmmm!!
This seems like an absolute must then.
PS4 pre-order cancelled and PS3 pre-order placed ;-)
BrendanCalls
So just doing a quick bit of maths on Amazon,
£42 for PS4 version, £35 for PS3 version
£10 to upgrade to PS4 version, so what i am really outlaying is £3 extra to do be able to have it digitally on PS4, on disc on PS3 and 1-ish month earlier than I was planning
£3 well spent in my book
Stefan L
Tread lightly, because this promotion only applies to marked boxes of BF4 for PS3, and we don’t know yet who will stock these or how many there will be!
But it does look a pretty spiffy deal. Don’t forget you’d still have that PS3 BF4 disc to with whatever you wish. :)
colmshan1990
Any chance of FIFA following the same model?