Summer Flame Day 2021— Sony, You Cowards! Release Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on PS4

I finally had the pleasure of finishing Final Fantasy VII Remake. I was pleasantly surprised with the changes made to the game and the major subversive story twist at the end of the episode. I’m excited for the next episode whenever it gets a release date. When that happens is anyone’s guess—I’m not even sure if the developers at Square Enix know for sure. What I do know is that thanks to a deal between Sony and Square I am currently unable to enjoy Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, i.e. the recently released DLC story. Despite FFVIIR being a game originally developed and released a little more than a year ago on the PS4, a chunk of story is now exclusive to the PS5.

Many of you avid PS5 fans out there might sneer and say “There’s nothing stopping you from getting a PS5. Just suck it up, snowflake! It’s all about Sony generations!”

There are several factors working against this mindset:

1. Fairness to all of those willing to take a chance on the game even knowing it wasn’t finished.
2. The price of upgrading to a new console generation just to experience DLC from one game.
3. Heavy supply constraints on the PS5 itself.
4. Recent and stunning reversals from Sony themselves.

 

In terms of fairness, having story DLC for a game that released a year ago being locked to a new console is egregious. This effectively splits the fanbase in half. Those able to play Intergrade because they were able to secure a PS5 and those who can’t or won’t upgrade to a PS5 as of yet. In terms of business and wanting to move users to the latest PlayStation console, I can understand Sony’s reasoning. Systems sell because they have games people want to play and FFVIIR did well at over five million units sold. Naturally, a free upgrade of Remake and reasonably priced DLC would be an enticing buy for fans who might have already been considering a PS5 purchase. Still, one would expect Square to support fans on the PS4 who purchased the game and have every right to expect DLC released a year later would also come to the system they already owned. Early adopters of this PS4 game took a chance and rewarded Square handsomely with strong sales, with some of us knowing future episodes could end up on the PS5. This move just confirms concerns over just how many consoles will Remake span since Square has not set release dates for upcoming episodes. (We could be looking a decade or longer for future episode releases!)

 

Telling people just to spend $400 to $500 on a console (if you can find one at MSRP) is a big demand just for a $20 DLC story episode. Add scalpers to the mix and that price easily doubles or triples. Heck, almost all of us at Damage Control feel like buying a console at launch is a fool’s game when software improvements, hardware revisions and price drops are to be expected during a console’s lifetime. Yes, the PS5 is completely backwards compatible with the PS4 and features a number of big performance upgrades. The faster loading times and higher framerates are definitely a step up from the previous generation. For those who want a 4K experience— it’s now baked into the console provided you have a 4K display. There are a few exclusive games on the new console and older games are seeing performance improvement patches.

Even with these pluses, Final Fantasy fans are still expected to pay hundreds for an upgrade if no other game except Intergrade really catches their eye. Even playing older titles with performance enhancements still amounts to an expensive upgrade. And let’s be real, Intergrade looks and runs better because it was optimized for the PS5, but it is still a port from a base game originally developed for the PS4. There’s no reason why a PS4 version can’t exist for this DLC.

 

Let’s say every single one of the five or six million people who purchased FFVIIR on the PS4 wanted to upgrade to the PS5 version. Realistically they can’t because the supply of consoles is severely lacking.  Since its November 2020 launch the PS5 has been notoriously difficult to obtain. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t do the system any favors with production lines for microchips being shut down because of lockdowns and then an overwhelming demand from major industries. Additionally, demand for the PS5 was high during the pre-order phase and at launch. Both fans and scalpers snapped up units as soon as they were available for purchase. Restocks are happening, but units still sell out within minutes. Not everyone has the time or luxury to keep an eye on restock notifications or to setup bots to help them buy a system.

Even the heads of Sony have taken note of the PS5 supply issue. Many first-party titles originally slated as PS5 exclusives are being ported to the PS4. Recent announcements include the latest God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, and Gran Turismo 7. Not to mention Spider-Man: Miles Morales was originally announced as a PS5 exclusive only to suddenly launch as a cross-gen game. Senior Director of SIE Content Communications Sid Shuman stated in an interview on PlayStation Blog the reason for the shift to a cross-gen strategy this year, after Sony said they believed in generations last year. “You can’t build a community of over 110 million PS4 owners and then just walk away from it, right? I think that’d be bad news for fans of PS4, and frankly not very good business.” In other words, it is a pure numbers game. As of this writing, 7.8 million PS5 units have been sold. The number is impressive for a console that has been out for less than a year. That said the PS4 has sold close to 116 million units. Such a huge install base and potential revenue can’t be ignored. This is especially true in a world where production problems have effectively hamstrung the launch of a new console generation.

 

If such a realization by the heads of Sony is possible with their first-party titles, surely Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade could receive the same cross-gen treatment. Sony and Square Enix are missing out on a big chunk of the fanbase by having this DLC remain a PS5 exclusive. As I said earlier, this is effectively an upgraded port of a PS4 game. It won’t run as well or look as good, but fans won’t have to rely on an expensive and difficult to obtain upgrade just to experience more of Remake’s story.

 

Sony, you cowards! Give us PS4 players a port of FFVIIR Intergrade already.