Microsoft Encourages Developers to Make Upgrades for Next-Gen Free

Microsoft has told developers not to charge players a premium to upgrade their current-gen games to Xbox Series X. The news was originally reported by VGC.

The manufacturer offers several options for next-gen game upgrades:

Smart Delivery — an Xbox initiative which allows you to buy a cross-gen game once on Xbox One or Xbox Series X and then unlock the other generation version for free;

Publisher’s own free upgrade alternative, such as Dual Entitlement from EA, where you purchase one current-gen version and get the next-gen version for free;

Crossgen bundle, a set with two versions of the game, as 2K Games did with NBA 2K21.

In general, developers have the freedom to update their games for next-generation consoles, and Microsoft helps to find the most suitable solution for each specific product.

At the same time, if a game don’t support Smart Delivery, you can forget about some of the cross-generation features such as common storage and achievements.

The vast majority of developers, however, openly support Smart Delivery. Among them are the creators of Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, DiRT 5, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Scarlet Nexus and Destiny 2. On PS5 the situation is similar, but there is no unified upgrade program for Sony itself.