The free upgrade is available for players who already own Doom Eternal on either the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Mind you, the update isn’t small. It clocks in at 68GB on the PS5, which means that it’ll take up a huge chunk on the PS5’s measly 667.2GB storage space. But, if you’ve got the space for it, the next-gen upgrade is really something. Unfortunately, as good as it is on the PS5, owners of that console are still getting the short end of the proverbial stick.
What’s wrong with the Doom Eternal PS5 upgrade?
Details of the Doom Eternal PS5 upgrade, as well as that of the Xbox Series S/X ,were announced by Bethesda in an official blog post. According to Bethesda, the next-gen version of Doom Eternal will come with three different modes: Ray Tracing, Balanced, and Performance. All three will run the game at 60 FPS minimum. However, there is a notable difference between how Doom Eternal will perform on the PlayStation 5 versus the Xbox Series S/X: Xbox Series X
Performance Mode: 1800p resolution at 120 frames per second Balanced Mode: 2160p resolution at 60 frames per second Ray Tracing Mode: 1800p resolution at 60 frames per second
PlayStation 5
Performance Mode: 1584p resolution at 120 frames per second Balance Mode: 2160p resolution at 60 frames per second Ray Tracing Mode: 1800p resolution at 60 frames per second
Obviously, id Software wanted to offer players different options for how they play the next-gen upgrade for Doom Eternal. However, for there to be a substantial difference in resolution between the PS5 and Xbox Series X is surprising, to say the least. While it is known that the Xbox Series X has more powerful hardware, most games tend to perform the same on the next-gen consoles. There’s also the issue of players reporting that they can’t access the PS5 version of Doom Eternal despite already owning the game on the PS4. A workaround exists by launching the PS4 version of Doom Eternal instead. However, even if this is fixed, there’s still the matter of not having a way to transfer save data from the PS4 version of Doom Eternal to the PS5 version. The PlayStation 5 has been criticized in the past for making it difficult to transfer saved data between cross-gen games. Still, this hasn’t stopped developers like Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix from implementing method for achieving this in games like Marvel’s Avengers and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. At this point, it’s clear that there’s a huge difference between how Microsoft and Sony want to implement cross-gen compatibility across games. Whereas Microsoft makes it easier for the Xbox Series S/X, Sony seems intent on doing the exact opposite. Doom Eternal isn’t the first game to receive a next-gen update. It’s certainly not going to be the last. Next week, an upgrade to 2019’s A Plague Tale: Innocence is going to release. It will be interesting to see how Sony plans on addressing this issue with future next-gen upgrades on the PS5 going forward.
