Darksiders Warmastered Edition Upgrade Costs Money, and Existing Owners Pay First?

According to Insider Gaming, Darksiders Warmastered Edition is now available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with THQ Nordic confirming that the update adds 4K resolution support, remastered cutscenes, improved shadows, and a broader rendering upgrade. The catch is pricing: upgrading from PS4 to PS5 costs $9.99, while Xbox One owners can move to Xbox Series X|S for free.

The main group getting the worst deal here is not new buyers. It is existing PS4 owners.

The math is simple enough. A standalone PS5 copy costs $29.99. The PS4 version currently sells for $19.99, and upgrading it to the PS5 version costs another $9.99. That brings the total to $29.99 either way. For new players, there is effectively no difference between buying in fresh and buying the older version plus the upgrade. For returning players who already own the PS4 release, though, the extra charge lands badly.

The contrast is even clearer on Xbox. The Xbox One version has already gone up from $19.99 to $29.99, and that purchase includes a free upgrade to the Xbox Series X|S version. In practice, Insider Gaming argues that new players on both platforms are paying the same extra $10. Xbox simply folded that cost into the base price ahead of time, while PlayStation leaves it as an upgrade fee.

That logic is not entirely incoherent. On paper, the numbers line up. The real problem is that there has been no explanation for why PlayStation players have to pay this way while Xbox players do not. When a publisher changes the terms without offering a reason, the first reaction is rarely understanding. It is usually: why?

That question matters more because this is not a brand-new game. Darksiders Warmastered Edition originally launched in 2016, and it was already a remaster of the first Darksiders. As the article notes, the original game first released 16 years ago. This latest upgrade focuses on standard current-gen improvements - 4K, remastered cutscenes, better shadows, and improved overall rendering quality - but it is hard to look at that package and immediately feel that a separate extra payment is obviously justified.

It also does not help that Darksiders is a single-player action-adventure game. If you care most about games as shared experiences, visual upgrades here are never going to carry the same weight as something you and your friends are actively playing together. In that context, being asked to pay another $9.99 as an existing PS4 owner is likely to feel more real than any improvement to image quality.

The buying advice is fairly straightforward. If you are a new player, follow the platform and the price: the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions both cost $29.99, so the gap is small. If you already own the Xbox One version, this upgrade is easy - just take it. If you already own the PS4 version and are not especially eager to jump back in right now, waiting makes more sense, at least until there is a clearer official explanation or the price softens.

Because in this situation, the people losing out are the old players willing to come back and support the game again. That is the part that feels hardest to defend. The original article also included a poll asking whether this upgrade fee is reasonable.