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Final Fantasy VII Remake gets a free upgrade on PS4 amid PC launch turmoil

Emily Morrow
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Starting this Wednesday, PlayStation Plus subscribers who redeemed Final Fantasy VII Remake through PlayStation Plus can upgrade to the PlayStation 5 Intergrade version of the game for free. The announcement comes hot of the heels of a shaky launch for the PC edition of the game.

Starting this Wednesday…

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• PS Plus subscribers who previously redeemed @FinalFantasy VII Remake via @PlayStation Plus will be able to upgrade to the PS5 version of the game.

• Episode Intermission, the DLC featuring Yuffie Kisaragi, will be 25% off for a limited time! pic.twitter.com/mnkCIRR586

— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) December 19, 2021

Final Fantasy VII Remake, which was originally a PlayStation exclusive, was available on PS Plus in March 2021. At that time, only the PlayStation 4 edition was available to players, upsetting many of those who wanted the PS5 version, which promised better visuals, faster load times, support for Sony’s DualSense controller, and other perks.

The Episode Intermission DLC was also not available for the PS4 version of the game, meaning that those who wanted to play it needed to purchase the game and DLC at full price on PS5, even if they were a PS Plus subscriber. Putting the DLC on sale and allowing PS Plus subscribers to upgrade for free seems to be Square Enix’s form of an olive branch for players, though it comes a full nine months after the original PS Plus fiasco.

In addition to being able to upgrade the game for free, the game’s Yuffie Kisaragi DLC, officially named Episode INTERmission, will be 25% off “for a limited time,” also starting this Wednesday.

Final Fantasy VII Remake recently became available on PC, though the launch was not nearly as smooth as Square Enix had hoped for. The game has few graphics options, which means that players can’t adjust settings like resolution scaling, anti-aliasing, VSync, and motion blur, among others.

Players have also experienced serious lag and slowdown when doing things as simple as moving the game’s camera around Cloud. These issues are occurring on even the most high-end PCs, indicating an issue with the game rather than players’ systems. Amid all this, VII Remake‘s hefty $70 price tag has caused even more outrage, though the same price is becoming the norm for AAA PS5 and Xbox Series X/S titles.

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