I may be in the minority on this one, but I think their approach is wise. Charge less for the previous gen version, and charge more for the newer version.

It's easy to be disappointed when comparing PlayStation to Xbox, concerning their next-gen upgrade system. However, Sony's approach is making sure that if a developer decides to put in more work, and deliver a next-gen upgrade, then there is a financial incentive to do so.

I'm sure Xbox is compensating it's developers to provide these next-gen upgrades for free in their ecosystem, but I wonder how long they can keep paying developers to do so.

One last thought I had while writing this - games as a service, or games with microtransactions, benefit more from 'free' next-gen upgrades, because it keeps people playing their games, and spending in-game currency.

We know that PlayStation invests more in AAA single player experiences, that most often don't include microtransactions. So from a business standpoint, it makes sense that they wouldn't offer a free upgrade for a game that most people will play once, that also doesn't have microtransactions (afaik).

Curious as to how this would work. The big selling proposition of the Switch is being able to take it on the go. To be able to play these Xbox Live games, I imagine you would have to have an internet connection, unless they enable a download service. That could be interesting. Super interesting idea.