Cyberpunk 2077 Will 'Look Better' On Xbox Series X From Day One

@Dyrual Not really, it just means that if you own the PS4 copy, you'll automatically be upgraded to the PS5 version when it's released.

Smart Delivery means developers are at liberty to decide whether or not they wish to charge their customers for a Series X version of a game if they already own it on Xbox One. It also means all Series X versions of its first party titles will be included with gamepass or made free to those that owned the Xbox One version.

To the best of my knowledge, Sony has remained very quiet over whether or not their customers will be required to purchase the PS5 version of their first party titles again if they already own the PS4 version. The Last of Us and God of War 3 are a few examples of games that charged customers twice for the PS4 and PS5 versions.

I'm holding off buying The Last of Us 2 until Sony can offer some clarity on their position regarding first party remasters on ps5.

I love how CD Projekt Red & Microsoft seem to be working so well together about this.

I'm sure the game will be amazing when it does come out. It's good to see that whatever version you get when you play it on next gen consoles it will look better

Does anyone know if this also means a physical release on Series X?

@TheDragonsMouth Perhaps they just release that "Xbox" version (Smart Delivery) like other leaked game boxes. The interesting thing is what data is included on the disc because of the limited storage and also because the next-gen version will be made available later.

@BlueOcean Cool, makes sense. I will definitely wait for the physical version of the Series X for sure if it does indeed happen. Thanks for the reply.

@TheDragonsMouth No problem, we'll have to wait and see if there's a separate physical release with the next-gen version data...

Can't wait to play this game..

@Dyrual so far Sony has said they are not working on any kind of system, other than “work with publishers” that want to accommodate something like this.

Important things to find out about how any given game will handle this:

How will save files sync between the different versions?

Will this means two items in your library? Or will it behave more akin to a PS4Pro enhancement, wheee PS4 games can check for the hardware version and do even more?

Will there be a cutoff date as to when you can upgrade?

If you buy the PS5 version, could you still play it on a PS4?

@TheDragonsMouth keep in mind there might not actually be a physical Xbox series release. But then again, this is CD Projekt Red, there will be DLC and eventually a “game of the year” edition with all that DLC built in. It’s very likely that GOTY Ed will be a series x physical copy. But will be like 2 years away.

Smart Delivery is a term that MS is using to give confidence to their consumer based. Sony is leaving it up to the devs, not that they won’t have updates, but that can “muddy the waters” sometimes. Maybe you don’t buy something cuz your afraid of the new console version, etc. Where as if you see the Smart Delivery mark on the packaging, you aren’t left guessing. Now MS is 100% using this for first party titles, I’m not sure Sony will.

@mousieone this again...

Smart delivery is as much of a thing as Cross-Play is for Sony. It’s not just about upgrades, it’s also about cloud based save syncing without the dev having to make their own syncing mechanisms.

Only Sony abandoned Cross Play in the jump from PS3 to PS4 because they wanted to sell everyone re-masters.

@Tharsman they have “save syncing” now with 360. Or do you not use Back Compatible? It’s not a new feature and yes uses the cloud.

@mousieone it’s not just cloud syncing, it’s cloud syncing of save data between two different versions of the game. The best comparison is, again, precisely PlayStation Cross-Buy, where the save files of a cross buy game would not just sync between multiple PS3s but also between the Vita versions.

It sounds trivial, but syncing data between two different binaries is not always an easy task, especially on automated closed systems that work automatically like these consoles stores work. New features need added to the back end to allow linking the multiple skus as sync targets.

Sony COULD just resurrect their cross buy program for console generations, of course, but then everyone would expect it out of first party games and I still bet they want to sell us a TLOU2 PS5 Remaster down the line.

@Tharsman right so how is this different between the “syncing” of save date between the “Enhanced X versions“ of 360 games and their 360 counterparts Because that’s exactly what happens now. Like it Syncs it uses the save date and you can play on the two systems.

@mousieone the enhanced one x versions are a single SKU, for one, and the same binaries, wrapped in a VM with overrides, and in some cases some asset swaps.

Mind you, might turn out eventually Smart Delivery game’s also end up being bound by a singular SKU.

@Tharsman Well it’s always a pleasure having a intellectual toss with you

Lets just hope after all these delays the game is good, I'm hopeful...
It would be a tremendous shame after all this hype for it to just be so so....
It needs to live up to the expectations now.

@mousieone @Tharsman I think that you are talking about different things. I think that Tharsman is talking about PS4 not having cloud save unless you pay PlayStation Plus so how will PS5 get save data from the PS4 version of the games to update or create the save file for the PS5? That's probably why Sony hasn't announced cross-buy, that and because they probably want to sell PS5 versions of PS4 games. Even if there is a free upgrade system they still have the cloud save issues. There's no automatic synchronisation on PS4 unless you pay. Yes, you can always use a USB stick backup to move save files from PS4 to PS5 but what if you play a game on PS4 after that?

It should be noted that if Microsoft has confirmed Smart Delivery is because they have solved the cross-save question between Xbox One and Series X already (even if they were different SKUs like Tharsman says), no doubt about it since cross-save has been confirmed, so nothing to worry about. On top of that, they have experience with backwards compatibility and every single Xbox One user has free cloud save which is what Mousieone means. Any user can play any backwards compatible or Xbox One game on any Xbox One console (and on PC, even!) and get their save files automatically updated. However, cross-save is troublesome on PS4/PS5.

The only question about Smart Delivery is what data will be included on the "Xbox" disc. If the next-gen version is not ready at launch (Cyberpunk) it will be the Xbox One version obviously with a free online upgrade for Series X when available. If the next-gen version is ready (Crash Bandicoot 4, perhaps) it will be the Series X version because I assume that the SKU will be the same Windows-based program that runs on Xbox One and Series X with different parameters. However, if the bigger assets need more storage than what a BD can give then the bigger assets will be downloadable like on Xbox One X.