So keep that disc if you’ve still got it
Resident Evil fans have a reason to revisit some of the series’ recent hits this week as Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7 all got PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions (and forced PC updates). Owners of these games on PS4 and Xbox One can upgrade for free with benefits like faster load times, ray tracing, and even haptic feedback with DualSense controllers. Except, there’s an unfortunate catch — if you own Resident Evil 7 through the PlayStation Plus Collection, you aren’t getting the PS5 upgrade, which is the same sort of weird caveat Final Fantasy fans went through with Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Some of you pointed out this issue earlier this week, and sure enough, it’s a bummer.
I thought I bought RE7 digitally, but it turns out that I originally got a disc-based copy at launch, then bought all of the DLC, and then redeemed the PS Plus Collection version when I got my PS5. If you see a little yellow plus icon (pictured above), that’s a dead giveaway.
The PlayStation Plus Collection is a great perk for PlayStation 5 owners, and when the console first launched and there weren’t many honest-to-goodness PS5 games to play, it did some heavy lifting. Having one of the collection’s featured PS4 games get a new PS5 version, but then restricting who can partake, feels unnecessary. It’s just bad optics.
If you want to upgrade RE7 to the PS5 version, for now, you’ll need to buy a digital PS4 copy (it’s $20) or grab a disc. That’s what I ended up doing, and here’s what it looked like:
With the disc in my PS5, I clicked the right-hand banner with the “Free PS5 Upgrade” text and it took me where I needed to go. You may have to do some digging, though.
How to find the upgrade in the PlayStation Store
Even if you do own a PS4 copy of Resident Evil 7 that you outright paid for, it can be needlessly convoluted to upgrade to the PS5 version depending on which edition you’ve got — for instance, if you have Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition. You may have trouble finding what you’re looking for on the browser-based PlayStation Store, especially when it comes to the individual PS5 versions of the DLC (like Bedroom, Nightmare, and 21), so I’d recommend claiming everything directly on a console if possible. When in doubt, click the little “…” button on the game’s store page to switch to the right product version.
I haven’t spent much time with RE7 on PS5 — enough to have many (but not all!) of my old trophies pop again — but I’ve seen less-than-ideal chatter about RE2 and RE3. As nice as ray tracing is in theory, an inconsistent frame rate can be a deal-breaker. I’m not sure if these versions will be updated further, but it sounds like they need a bit more work.
I’m also hoping Capcom and Sony work out whatever they need to work out to lift this PS Plus Collection caveat. In an ideal world, these upgrades should be effortless for users. Xbox has been excelling with Smart Delivery and backward compatibility enhancements.
