Last week 505 Games announced Control: Ultimate Edition which will release on September 10th and provide a free upgrade to the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game. In the same process, 505 Games confirmed that you’d only get a free upgrade if you purchased this version and owners of the original version would not receive a free upgrade.
Today, they’ve taken to a blog post to explain the decision, saying that with every avenue that they tried, there was some form of blocker which would result in one group of players being left out of the upgrade for various reasons. They reaffirmed that not everyone would be able to be upgraded and apologised.
The statement reads:
Last week, alongside information about the upcoming AWE expansion for Control, we also released information about Control Ultimate Edition – a Control package featuring The Foundation and AWE expansions, coming to current and next gen consoles, as well as PC.
We spent several months exploring all of our launch options for Control Ultimate Edition and no decision was taken lightly. While it is challenging bringing any game to next gen platforms, we quickly realised it was even more difficult to upgrade our current user base to next gen with full parity across platforms with our year-old game.
Every avenue we pursued, there was some form of blocker and those blockers meant that at least one group of players ended up being left out of the upgrade for various reasons. As of today, we can’t offer an upgrade to everyone, and leaving any one group out feels unfair. We understand that is not what you want to hear.
Understandably, there are still some questions about what this means for those that already own Control on current gen consoles and we hope to clear this up.
So just to reiterate, as it stands, if you own the original version of Control, you’ll be able to play your copy on PS5/Xbox Series X, but it won’t get next-gen upgrades. If you purchase Control: Ultimate Edition from September 10th, you will get a free upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X. This version will also be able to be purchased on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
On one hand, I understand why gamers are upset, but there’s also work that goes into providing these next-gen enhancements. I feel for people that may have recently purchased the season pass or those that purchased the original game and season pass at launch.
