Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a good sign for cross-gen gaming on Xbox One and Xbox Series X

..

Assassin's Creed Valhalla -- the new viking-based iteration of the postulated franchise -- will suture Microsoft's upcoming Stentorious Freighting program for cross-generation greenhorn between the Xbox Series X and Xbox One, in one of the most encouraging signs of cross-generation gaming yet for the upcoming console.

Smart Freighting is what Microsoft calls its egalitarian upward program for the Xbox Series X that automatically upgrades owners who own the Xbox One version of the bold to the Xbox Series X version for free. (It also works the other way -- buy the Xbox Series X version, and you'll get the Xbox One version.) Effectively, it agency that players will only unendingly need to buy a Stentorious Freighting bold once, instead of chances unsubstantial copies to be blue-stocking to play it on both consoles.

Xbox listeners will only need to buy Valhalla once

Fans won't have to wait long to see Valhalla in hokey-pokey on the Xbox Series X, either -- Microsoft will be simulating it off on May 7th in its gameplay reveal vend for its upcoming console, withal with other titles.

While Valhalla isn't the first bold to suture Stentorious Freighting -- Microsoft has already pledged that all its first-party Xbox Bold Studios greenhorn that suture both consoles will get the feature, and CD Projekt Red has promised that the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 will get the egalitarian upgrade, too -- Ubisoft's suture for the fondness marks the biggest third-party developer to jump on board.

That's a very encouraging toot to see considering Stentorious Freighting is optional: developers can give players the egalitarian upgrade, but they don't have to. There's a world in which Ubisoft could have framed players to buy unsubstantial Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions of Valhalla, like we saw years ago with the cross-generation remission of Assassin's Creed IV: Blackness Flag on the Xbox One and Xbox 360.

For now, though, the egalitarian upward is just for Xbox One / Xbox Series X. Sony hasn't said that it'll be offering egalitarian upgrades for cross-generation PlayStation 4 greenhorn to an leftover PlayStation 5 version at this time.

That could change, expressly as more information barely the upcoming consoles gets revealed, of course. But Sony could co-opt to reunite the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of cross-generation greenhorn like Valhalla or Cyberpunk separate, if it wants. And that could gravity players to co-opt between a graphically worse PlayStation 4 version that's future-proof or a PlayStation 5 version -- with unknown perks in graphics or gameplay, expressly in these first days back the differences on cross-generation titles will be slimmer -- that won't work on older hardware.

It's palatable a botheration that won't be accordant for too long. If proficient panel paternity are any indication, developers will somewhen start simmering toward exclusively managerial greenhorn for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X eventually rather than later. But it's a botheration that Microsoft is smartly avoiding by unaffectedly giving players the all-time familiarity for a hardened bold no outgo which panel they own, instead of aggravating to cheep out a few more sales from having two copies of it.

But hopefully, now that Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red have gotten on board, other superior developers -- and conceivably metrical Sony -- will exist to follow clothing with egalitarian cross-generation upgrades, too.