Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Update: I might have been a bit too quick to judge Sony on this one. A response to this article is located here, but you can read the original article below.

Right now on eBay, I can get a physical copy of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End for $6, and a copy of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy for $9, give or take. Over the past couple of years both games were frequently on sale on PSN in their PS4 standalone versions for roughly the same amount, since both were inducted into the $19.99 PlayStation Hits catalogue.

With the announcement that both games were going to be bundled in the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which is now the second collection of “visually enhanced” Uncharted games, the Hits editions were removed from PlayStation’s digital storefront. Now, the only option to buy either is this new bundle. Granted, the PS4 version will only run you $39.99 for the PS4 version, effectively combining the cost of the Hits versions.

But since Sony is no longer about giving free current-gen upgrades to their last-gen first-party titles, the PS5 version is going to set you back $49.99. Basically, the cost of the base game and this arbitrary $10 upgrade fee that seems to be all the rage these days.

It seems like Sony is being a little cheeky by calling this Legacy of Thieves Collection, because the only thieves in this equation are the folks at Sony who decided on this pricing model. The bundled version should be cheaper than buying the games individually, not more expensive.

And before you come to Sony’s aid and tell me about the amount of effort that went into up-rezzing these titles to take full advantage of blah blah blah, let me just remind you that simply because an older game gets a new fresh coat of paint, it doesn’t mean its value has increased. You have to take into consideration that these newly painted games are still several years old, so the amount of effort that went into sprucing them up is still offset by the fact that these are games currently valued at around $10 each without that new sheen.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

I’m sorry, but there is no amount of up-rezzing that would warrant a $50 price tag for the PS5 version. Especially considering Uncharted 4 was included in the PS Plus Collection for PS5 owners in lieu of a bevy of PS5 titles at the consoles launch.

“But Julian,” you might be saying, “if you already own Uncharted 4, why are you complaining about how much this new collection costs?” Because even if I already own it, there is still that silly $10 upgrade fee to get the current-gen patch. And also, because of this new collection, there is no longer an option to even buy the standalone edition of The Lost Legacy on the storefront. It’s either the bundle or nothing, which seems incredibly silly.

I understand the instinct to make people pay for this collection — that’s business and this is Sony. But taking away the piecemeal offerings of both titles and gating them behind a collection is mindboggling.

Well, I guess there’s always eBay. Although who’s to say this move from Sony won’t now artificially inflate the value of the standalone physical copy of The Lost Legacy, leading to an uptick in the price tag? Shoot, better smoke ’em while you got ’em, or buy them while you can.

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