Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was once assumed to be a PlayStation 5 exclusive, until last week when Sony announced that it’s also coming to the PlayStation 4. For those who buy Miles Morales on PS4 and eventually upgrade to the PlayStation 5, should they chose, the game will upscale to the PlayStation 5 version. Players looking for a more clearly defined line between this generation have seen this as a somewhat disappointing turn of events, but ultimately Miles Morales being available to a wider audience is nothing but good news, especially for those who have been hit hard financially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But here’s where things get…sticky.
A perk for getting Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and new hardware to play it on is that it comes with a download code for a remaster of 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man, post game downloadable content and all. That is, provided you buy into the more expensive Ultimate Edition. This is no mere upscale too, as work was done on it to take advantage of the PlayStation 5 hardware. Along with new costumes and trophies, character models and animations have been retooled. If you own Marvel’s Spider-Man already, it will play on the PlayStation 5, however unlike Miles Morales, it won’t follow the same enhancement path. From Sony:
“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.”
It became known last week that Sony had no plans to sell a physical version of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PlayStation 5, but the news that there will be a way to obtain the remaster for PS4 players is a happy development. For fear of missing out on the opportunity to get the PS5 edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man, it could’ve led to people unnecessarily buying two version of Miles Morales – the PS4 game to play in the meantime and the Ultimate Edition for later down the road. Now for a small fee, no one has to expend any unnecessary funds on a title they really don’t need.
Sony has maneuvered the best it can, but there was no way that they’re going to please everyone with this somewhat convoluted web. The company is in the business of moving new hardware this fall, and a way to do that is not only with a new Spider-Man game, but also a better version of what has become the best-selling superhero game of all time. They’ve generated some goodwill with those who can’t upgrade by letting them enjoy Miles Morales, but given that there’s a way to bump that title up to the new version when placed in new hardware, it makes you wonder why that can’t be the case with the many copies of Marvel’s Spider-Man that are floating around out in the wild. At the very least they should looked into announcing a timed window when a standalone version of Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PS5 will become available, whether it’s physical, digital or both.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is available starting November 12th for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
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