Action game: Control and the mysterious upgrade blockers

If you want to play the action game Control with technical improvements on the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, you have to buy the Ultimate Edition for Playstation 4 and Xbox One, which will be released on September 10, 2020. The unusual thing about it: The standard version of the game, which has been available for a long time, also runs on the new consoles – but without the optimizations. They are only available with the Ultimate Edition.

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The publisher 505 Games tries on its homepage Explain why not all buyers get the optimized console version of Control. The company writes that they are after “investigations lasting several months” figured out that “there is some form of blocker” give – it doesn’t get more specific. The company writes that it “unfair” is that a certain group of customers is left out in terms of optimizations.

In view of the cryptic reasoning, the idea that the blockers are just invented and that 505 Games simply wants to sell the particularly loyal fans of Control the same game twice comes to mind.

If not, it would be interesting to know what are the barriers to upgrading every version of Control for free. According to the current state of knowledge, at least on the Xbox Series X this shouldn’t just be no problem. On the contrary: Microsoft has even asked independent publishers and developers to offer free upgrades of their games for the new console.

This works via a system called Smart Delivery, which automatically installs the best possible version. The developers of titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Destiny 2 and many more have already announced that they will use Smart Delivery.

The system is also used for the standard version of Control, but there are no optimizations – these are available exclusively for the Ultimate Edition, which is otherwise identical in terms of content and technology to the currently available Control.

It is not yet finally clear whether the whole thing will work similarly on the Playstation 5. But it would be a surprise if Sony offered a completely different process on the new console.

The Ultimate Edition of Control developed by Remedy Entertainment (test on Golem.de) contains the two extensions The Foundation and Awe. The latter will appear on the same day that the PC version of the Ultimate Edition is available in the Epic Games Store: on August 27, 2020. On September 10, 2020, the new edition, which costs around 40 euros, will follow for Playstation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC on Steam.