It’s starting to become a trend that older versions of games are getting the ax in the wake of their eventual remastered versions, with games like Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy being removed as soon as the Definitive Edition launched. Nonetheless, that version of the game was a commercial flop, and the original versions of the game have been relisted. It seems the same fate is befalling another, more recent title, Uncharted 4, and its companion piece, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, as its eventual PS5 remaster is slated to release.

This fate isn’t something that happens to all games. Titles like the original Sam & Max Save the World have been delisted and are only available as Free DLC to the Remaster. However, Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: Lost Legacy are the next titles to endure the standalone title delists.

There is currently a remaster for both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: Lost Legacy on the way, with the two titles coming to both PC and PS5. And since this is the case, Sony has decided to delist the games from their store and sell them as a full bundle as remakes when the remasters come out in January.

Their reasoning is simple, they don’t want people to purchase the original games on PS4 for cheap, and then upgrade them to PS5 when they launch on the console. Sony is offering the players who own the original PS4 games the ability to upgrade to the PS5 version for the price of $10 dollars. This would be an extra 10 bucks for anyone who already owns the copies of the game on PS4, and with the price of the games being very low on the market as standalone, they’ve opted to only sell them as bundles on the digital store. 

This seems like a scummy move by Sony. However, for those who still want to prepare for the upgrade but don’t want to fork over the $50 bucks to purchase the games, or the $40 for the digital bundle, only to pay the PS5 price once the remaster of Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: Lost Legacy comes out. There is another way. 

The games are going for a very low price physically. Sony isn’t able to delist the games in resale shops or physical stores like GameStop, and checking the website for GameStop, Uncharted 4 is going for $10, while Lost Legacy is on Sale for $8.99. This totals out to around $20 bucks for both games physically, and then the $10 upgrade for both games, which would total the price out to a whopping $30 dollars, compared to the $50 Sony is asking for. 

This wouldn’t be the first time that Sony has attempted to make players fork over money for the remastered PS5 versions of their older games. Previously, Sony and the developers of Ghost of Tsushima got in trouble for their seemingly exploitative prices on their upgrades for the original version of Ghost of Tsushima to the Director’s Cut of the game. 

Some Developers like Square Enix were nice enough to let owners of Final Fantasy VII Remake get the PS5 Version for Free. However, this didn’t extend to people who picked the game up during the game’s brief stint on PS+.

Regardless, it seems like Sony’s decision to remove Uncharted from their online stores is going to backfire from those who are willing to do some digging to find deals on their games instead of purchasing the bundle, and later the PS5 remaster. This is a definitive win for those who decide to keep the discs on their games. It seems that more people are starting to wake up to the fact that digital isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.