If you get a PS5, don't expect to get a free upgrade for any cross-gen titles you purchase. While Microsoft has detailed how its smart delivery platform will work, Sony is a bit more reserved about similar features on the PS5.

Fans want to know: will free upgrades and save compatibility be guaranteed for games released on PS4 when purchased on PS5? Sony's official answer is either "no" or "maybe," depending on how much trust they have in third-party developers.

The information comes from the Japanese gaming website GameSpark and was translated by the English-language gaming website Video Games Chronicle.GameSpark spoke to a spokesperson for Sony Interactive Entertainment, who said that Sony has "an upgrade plan to publishers who choose to offer them, and will be as flexible as possible."

Two important things can be gleaned from this short statement. One is that Sony will let individual publishers choose whether or not to support automatic upgrades. The more negative view is that Sony will not necessarily require or recommend automatic upgrades. No one knows yet whether Sony will offer automatic upgrades for its games.

On the surface, this seems quite different from the Xbox Series X's smart delivery, which guarantees upgrades and clearly distinguishes between backward compatibility of games and optimized versions for next-gen consoles. (It is also not known exactly how PS4 backward compatibility will work, so purchasing PS4 late-gen games is likely to be at your own risk.) But let's not forget: Microsoft also does not require Smart Delivery for games. Currently, only about a dozen games are guaranteed to work with Smart Delivery, and we know that some games (e.g., "Madden 21") do not have Smart Delivery.

The big difference is that Microsoft has promised Smart Delivery for its own first-party games and has explained exactly how the process works. So far, it appears that some PS4 games will receive a free upgrade to PS5 and some will not, but we do not know which games fall into which category or what features the "free upgrade" titles will have.

Unlike the Xbox One, which was backward compatible with many Xbox 360 games, the PS4 was not backward compatible with the PS3. As a result, there is no Sony roadmap with regard to backward compatible games or cross-save functionality. Sony has previously stated that the PS5 should support the majority of PS4 games, but has not revealed which specific titles will be compatible at launch.

If PS4 games will work on the PS5, it is reasonable to assume that there will be some way to transfer saved data. However, that process may not be as automatic as on the Xbox system. Also, Sony currently requires a PlayStation Plus subscription to back up saved data to the cloud, which may cost money.

Indeed, finishing a game on a current console is not the most difficult task in the world. It would still be nice to have some clarity about PS5 game upgrades, if only to let players know how quickly they should aim to complete games like "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Assassin's Creed Valhalla.