PS4 Players Slam PlayStation Over Controversial Decision

Many PS4 players aren’t very happy with PlayStation at the moment following a controversial decision from the latter that came to the surface this week. It’s almost 2023, and the PS5 has entered its third year on the market. Many assumed PS4 support would be borderline non-existent at this point, but this hasn’t been the case. Not only do many games continue to come to the PS4, but many games from PlayStation itself. For example, God of War Ragnarok just released on both PS4 and PS5. Meanwhile, earlier this year, Horizon Forbidden West did the same. And it’s the latter that is at the heart of the controversy. 

On April 9, 2023, Horizon Forbidden West is getting an expansion by the name of Burning Shores. Unlike the base game that was released earlier this year on PS4 and PS5, the expansion is only coming to PS5. Why? Well, Guerilla Games doesn’t say much beyond a broad statement notes due to the “grand vision” of the game it has “made the difficult decision to focus all [its] efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console.” As you would expect, many PlayStation fans aren’t impressed with the news or explanation. 

“The people that are commenting that Burning Shores on PS5 is ‘as it should be’ are hopefully joking? If the MAIN game was on PS5 only, I’d understand. But you can also play Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 so the choice of making the DLC a PS5 exclusive is just wrong,” writes one Twitter user of the news. “This is just not ok wtf??

“Horizon Forbidden West is my personal Game of the Year,” writes another Twitter user. “To find out that Burning Shores DLC will be on PS5 only when the base game was for both PS4 and PS5 is disappointing. Some people just cannot afford to get a PS5. Denying people who played on one console the chance to play the DLC just for profit, great.”

It’s hard to imagine the DLC can’t run on a PS4. In fact, it almost certainly can. However, the effort of getting it on PS4 may just not be worth the investment, or at least that’s the conclusion PlayStation and Guerrilla Games presumably drew after looking at sales data for the game on PS4 and comparing it to the costs of getting the DLC on the machine. That said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think. Was this the right decision by Sony?