PS4 owners of Persona 5 Royal will not have the option to upgrade to the PS5 version, according to Atlus. Instead, those who wish to own a copy of the PS5 version will need to pay the full price, regardless of whether they own the previous-gen version.
During a recent Q&A session, Atlus confirmed that it will not be offering an upgrade path to PS4 owners of Persona 5 Royal for the PS5 version. This is no different from the situation where Persona 5 owners were not offered an upgrade option to Persona 5 Royal on the PS4.
In an era where some publishers are offering free upgrades for current-gen releases, Atlus chose not to offer an upgrade path altogether, free or otherwise. This comes are a particularly anti-consumer move, especially due to the fact that this is the third re-release of Persona 5 on PlayStation. While not ideal, an upgrade fee would have sufficed, but, instead, those interested will have to pay full price in order to get the improvements the PS5 version brings.
Persona 5 is a 2016 role-playing game developed by Atlus and published by Sega. The story follows a high school student going by the alias Joker who moves to a new school after being wrongfully convicted of assault and placed on probation. It is set in contemporary Tokyo. He and other pupils develop a particular power over the course of a school year, becoming the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, a clandestine vigilante organization.
To wrest evil purpose from adults’ minds, they explore the Metaverse, a paranormal world created from the buried ambitions of humans. The team fights Shadow adversaries utilizing Personas, physical representations of their psyche, just like in other games in the series. Role-playing, dungeon delving, and social simulation situations are all included in the game.
Persona 5 Royal, the improved version featuring additional content, was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan in October 2019 and internationally in March 2020. In October 2022, Royal will also be made available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
