Free Unreal Engine 5 Upgrade for Conan Exiles Enhanced and Aloft 1.0: Funcom Doubles Down on PS5 Survival in Early 2027
Fresh off bringing Dune: Awakening to consoles amid Funcom's internal restructuring, the Norwegian publisher is already lining up two more open-world survival experiences for PlayStation 5 players. In an official PlayStation Blog announcement penned by Funcom Communications Manager Jarle Hrafn Grindhaug, the company confirmed that both Conan Exiles Enhanced and the sky-high sandbox adventure Aloft will launch on PS5 in early 2027.
Conan Exiles Enhanced Rebuilds the Exiled Lands in Unreal Engine 5 as a Free PS5 Upgrade
Eight years after players first stepped into its unforgiving Hyborian wasteland, Funcom is overhauling its flagship barbarian survival title with Conan Exiles Enhanced. Built in Unreal Engine 5 for PlayStation 5, the native current-gen edition delivers upgraded environments, character models, lighting systems, and visual effects powered by modern rendering technology. The studio has also redesigned the user interface from the ground up alongside broader performance and quality-of-life improvements.
Crucially for longtime survivors, every player who currently owns or purchases Conan Exiles on PlayStation will receive the PlayStation 5 Enhanced edition completely free of charge. Both the PS4 and PS5 versions will support full cross-entitlement where buying one version grants the other automatically, and all previously purchased DLC packs and in-game Bazaar items will carry over from PS4 to PS5 without friction.
Beyond the technical leap, the PS5 release packs two major gameplay additions right at launch:
- Connected World Maps: For the first time in the game's history, the base Exiled Lands map is being connected to the Isle of Siptah expansion (which remains a separate purchase) for a much more seamless traversal experience.
- Day-One Story Arc Included: The new Legacy of the Giant-Kings narrative arc will be bundled into the console launch of Conan Exiles Enhanced from day one, tasking players with uncovering the mysteries of the ancient Giant-Kings across new challenges and rewards.
Aloft Soars Onto PS5 With Full Version 1.0 Content and Five Major PC Updates
Trading blood-soaked desert raids for peaceful cloudscapes, Funcom is also publishing Canadian developer Astrolabe Interactive's cozy co-op sandbox survival game Aloft for its console debut. Developed over six years by a studio that started as a small circle of friends, the game lets players turn floating islands into customizable skyships and explore a vibrant aerial world solo or with friends.
Rather than launching in an unfinished state, the PlayStation 5 edition of Aloft will ship with the complete Version 1.0 experience alongside all five major content updates released during its PC Early Access run:
- Skyship Building and Cloud Exploration: Convert floating islands into personal skyships fitted with sails, helms, and windmills while braving hurricane winds.
- Ecosystem Restoration: Cure fungal corruption across infected islands, care for farm animals, and uncover lost knowledge to bring nature back to balance.
- Five Early Access Expansions Included: Features new wildlife species, environmental puzzles, reworked combat mechanics, deep glider customization, and expanded sky biomes from day one.
PlayStation Store Wishlists Open Ahead of the Early 2027 Launch Window
While exact release dates will be shared at a later stage, both titles are available to wishlist right now on the PlayStation Store. Their arrival adds two distinct survival flavors to the opening stretch of the 2027 video game release calendar for PlayStation 5 owners.
My Perspective
Talk about tonal whiplash in the best possible way. Anyone who ever tried building a sprawling clan fortress in Conan Exiles on a base PS4 knows how badly the Exiled Lands needed a proper current-gen rescue. Rebuilding the game in Unreal Engine 5, linking the base map to the Isle of Siptah, and handing the entire PS5 upgrade to existing owners for free with full DLC carryover is a genuinely player-friendly move that should pull veteran clans right back in. And when the brutal desert grind gets too heavy, having Aloft land on PS5 straight in Version 1.0 so you can steer a floating island through the clouds and tend to your sky alpacas makes for a remarkably well-balanced survival double bill to kick off 2027.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
