QSSR upscaling is live in Spider-Man 2 on PS5, with five more games to follow

Sony’s AI upscaler for the standard PS5 is now live in one game and on the way to five more. According to a PlayStation Blog post from Sony graphics engineer Daniel Craig, Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR) is available in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from today, while Control Resonant, ARC Raiders, The Finals, No Man’s Sky and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam follow over the coming weeks. VGC frames all six as already updated, but Sony’s own post sets out a staggered rollout.

Spider-Man 2 first, Control Resonant in December

Insomniac Games moved fastest. Mike Fitzgerald, the studio’s Head of Technology, says the team saw “great results” with QSSR in Marvel’s Wolverine and decided to bring it to the 2023 game too, with gains in image stability and sharpness in both Fidelity and Performance modes. Since the update is out now, PS5 owners can check the difference without waiting for anything else.

Remedy’s sequel takes longer. Erik Jansson, Senior Graphics Programmer at Remedy Entertainment, says the studio has worked closely with Sony to have QSSR ready in a December update, promising a “much more stable and detailed image”. No exact date is given. The game is the same one that drew fan backlash over PS5-exclusive early access ahead of its September launch, so this is another PlayStation-side perk, though the update itself targets the base PS5 rather than a particular edition.

Where each game stands

The other four games have softer timelines, and the studios’ wording is the only guide so far.

Embark Studios Technical Art Director Mikael Linderholm says QSSR will deliver “increased sharpness” and better environmental clarity in both of its shooters. Hello Games founder Sean Murray says the tech lets the team render No Man’s Sky in sharper, cleaner detail while keeping the framerate as high as possible. Expression Games Game Director Paul Rustchynsky says the update will improve image quality from dense jungle to full-scale firefights in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam.

What QSSR is, and what it costs

Sony introduced QSSR on 1 October as a “performance tier” of AI upscaling born from Project Amethyst, its graphics collaboration with AMD. Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei were the first games patched to offer it as an additional graphics option. Sony says PSSR remains the gold standard on PS5 Pro, but because QSSR shares its interface with PSSR, it suits games that already support the Pro’s upscaler.

The base PS5 lacks the Pro’s dedicated machine-learning hardware, so QSSR primarily relies on FP16 calculations and a more streamlined neural network. In Digital Foundry’s hands-on, reported by PC Guide, QSSR ran around 1.5ms to 1.8ms slower than Insomniac’s existing upscaler in Wolverine‘s uncapped performance mode, upscaling from 864p to 1440p. At fidelity-mode settings the cost reached roughly 4.4ms, which suggests 1440p is the more natural target on standard PS5. Digital Foundry called the technology’s potential “remarkable”.

For owners of the standard console, that means a software-only improvement to games they already have, with no new hardware needed. Sony says “developers are just getting started” and promises more QSSR games on PS5 in the coming months. PC players already get comparable AI upscaling through NVIDIA’s DLSS, which we covered in our look at DLSS 4.5’s March launch.