I was looking through the sale currently running on Playstation and I saw a listing under Train Sim World 5 that had Spooorlijn-Zwolle Groningen for $26.95. However, I found that I own the TSW6 version which of course I get free. So why does the price still show under the TSW5 version? I’ve never seen that happen before. Is that supposed to happen?
If you bought it for TSW6 you only get the license for TSW6 If you'd bought it for TSW5 you'd have the license for TSW5 and TSW6 Licenses for TSW6 versions of DLC no longer backport to earlier TSW versions
Yeah, the sods! I also wasn’t happy about this as I wanted to go back and unlock the achievements in TSW5. I just wanted to add a bit of chuff chuff in the oven, whilst I knocked over a few pins in the virtual world.
Update: So I just bought the Bahnstrecke-Salzburg-Rosenheim Add-On for TSW6 on sale on the Playstation store but the store still shows the sale price for the earlier (TSW4 and TSW5) versions. In other words, it looks like I'd have to pay to buy them, though since I'm not playing TSW4 or TSW5, I guess it's not really an issue. But still, I think the game should credit you for that compatibility. It credits you up when you have already bought the lower versions then why not when you buy them for the first time? I'm thinking I should have bought the lowest version and that would have taken care of it, but I didn't know. I've written support about this, but I wanted to mention it here. If anyone from DTG is reading this, can you reply please? Thanks.
I seem to remember they explained that buying the tsw6 versions of add-ons doesn't give you the tsw1-5 versions because store holders were getting tired off setting up store entitlements. Which does beg the question why they don't want to bother a few guys at Sony, Microsoft (wait he probably got replaced by AI), Epic or Steam who's job it is to maintain the store to set up the store properly, but are fine to piss of the playerbase to redownload 100gbs of data every year, especially when at least one platform each year has issues...
They won't give a key for the earlier versions if someone purchased the DLC for TSW6. As has been mentioned above, DLC bought for TSW6 is for TSW6 only and not backward compatible with earlier versions.
Another reason why this annual release nonsense makes things overly complicated and confusing for a lot of players, especially new ones.
Tried that, as I want to unlock the Achievements which aren't supported on the TSW6 version. No joy. Despite already owning the Cardiff and Zwolle TSW6 DLC I was told to just buy the (full price) TSW5 versions of the DLC as well. Thanks, DTG. Agree 100% - yet another consequence of chasing new customers at the expense of existing players.
Update: So I submitted a ticket and, unfortunately, didn't get a reply until after the sale ended, which was completely and totally my mistake for initially sending it to the wrong address. But here's what I received: John (Dovetail Games) Jan 10, 2026, 07:41 GMT-12 Hello Steve, Thank you for your message and for choosing the Spoorlijn – Grolle Zone on PS5. Official DLC Compatibility Policy in TSW6 New DLC released for Train Sim World 6 is not backwards compatible with earlier titles (TSW4, TSW5, or older). Any DLC purchased on TSW6 will only be available in TSW6. Conversely, DLC purchased for earlier versions (TSW2–5) will remain forward compatible, meaning you can still use those in TSW6. Why This Change Was Made This policy helps reduce complexities with platform store entitlements and to streamline the purchasing and download process. What You Can Do Purchasing older DLC (TSW2–5 versions) on your PSN account will grant you that content in TSW6. Just make sure it's the version you want first. Unfortunately, buying the TSW6 version of Spoorlijn or similar routes will not retroactively add the DLC to TSW4 or TSW5. I haven't been one to complain a lot about this game. In fact, it's my go-to, favorite game (I own about 85 percent of the DLCs), but this really bothers me. It has been a longtime policy since I started with TSW2020 for all DLCs to be backwards compatible. I suppose one can say it's not that big a deal unless you plan to play anything earlier than TSW6, but it irks me that I didn't have the chance to make the choice because I didn't know this policy had changed. I would have bought the earlier version if I thought it made a difference or if there was a notification on the TSW6 DSL that it was not backwards compatible. That should have been, at least, done and it wasn't. If this change was announced via email, I don't recall receiving it. If it was announced here, fine, but I don't check this board everyday and I suspect there are some of you that don't either. And either way, I never saw any notice of a change. The reasoning I was given for making the change, "This policy helps reduce complexities with platform store entitlements and to streamline the purchasing and download process," doesn't make sense either since it really makes things more complex, not less, for the customres. As someone mentioned earlier, why is there a concern about the store platforms? Didn't they have to reprogram the store platform to change the policy? They still get the money, don't they? It definitely makes things more confusing when you are looking at DLCs on sale and see TSW6 DLCs listed and not anything earlier, as I did with this one. But I didn't know then there would be any difference in which one I bought. As I asked in my note back to DTG, please be good enough to reconsider this and return to making the policy even-handed for both forward and backward compatibility. The fact we have to manually update our DLCs every new edition of the game to avoid paying for them again, a policy which in itself should change, should be reason enough to fix this. You guys do so many things right. How about fixing this one? I thought about taking a chance and purchasing the earlier version while it was on sale, but I wasn't sure whether that would help. If I'd written them in time, I would have. I'm sorry I didn't take the gamble. And I apologize if this all sounds dumb, but I really do love this game, but this development is a huge disappointment for me. /rant
On PS, maybe on Steam too, the sale for a specific route is also there for older versions like TSW5. On Xbox, the sale is only for the TSW6 version, so you can't buy routes on sale for older version of the game. If someone is not playing on TSW6, or want to play a route for other reasons on a older version of the game, there are no sales anymore. I've split my routes, the older ones (TSW and TSW2) I play on TSW3 and the newer ones on TSW6, so no sale for me for the older routes anymore, as I can only play them in TSW6. In my opinion this is a very bad decision, caused by the yearly not necessary "new" game.
Someone did. And unfortunately I didn’t buy the earlier version instead. But there is no question this was a bad decision. It means now I have to go through my wishlist and change all my older choices to make sure my picks are backwards compatible. That creates confusion that wasn’t there before.
I think it’s more in line with the reason they gave that it came from the stores. But then why would it affect them? The programming to keep the compatibility would be DTG’s, not the store’s.. But that’s just a guess. Hopefully if enough people object to this it’ll be fixed.
I just deleted all my wish list for TSW. because it was based on TSW6. This way I won’t get caught again.
I got caught on this too and l have bought everything in xbox from the beginning and the same on steam apart from Zwolle and Cardiff for steam in TSW5, which made me buy the TSW6 special version, as it had the two routes l hadn’t got for TSW5. I didn’t have to do this on xbox so bought TSW6 deluxe. Dovetail support said l had to buy them again if l wanted them in five, so will now curtail my purchasing in future. If l had seen the information l had forgotten. As l am now 80 my short term memory is not what it was!
I'm in my 70's, but I'm not using that as the full excuse. I didn't see the threads that were posted beforehand. And there's no statement on the DLCs that they aren't backward compatible. I think that needs to be put there. Having it hidden in an FAQ that not everyone may read doesn't really communicate the issue to users very well. And it doesn't simplify things either. It complicates them. If you are looking at a sale and have all your wishlists items as TSW6, then see a TSW6 sale listing first and jump on it, as I did, if you aren't aware of the policy, you get shortchanged. I hate to sound like a broken EMI Parlophone disc (and since I'm an American Beatles fan, that would really sting), but this needs to be changed.
l don’t think it needs changing, but if you have mistakenly bought a route in TSW6 that would also work in TSW5 where you want it, l am extremely surprised that DTG wouldn’t accommodate the situation and give you a key. In my case, l wrote to Dovetail support who took too long to response and then l was out of time for claiming a refund from the purchaser. Never mind l will live with it!
I made the mistake of downloading the DLC ( probably before I knew about the compatibility thing), which the PS support person told me wouldn’t enable a refund. I have to live with it also. Hoping there’s a change in the future.
@IfICanDream Learn to forget it! Because DTG will certainly not change that; we all know DTG too well for that.
I don’t know how it is confusing. A new edition comes out, you buy (or acquire the free version), and then change your routes to the new edition. If something about that simple 3-step process is tough to understand, maybe that’s not DTGs problem
And then people complain that the new version of the game is almost identical to the previous one. But for some reason, they still play the old games. Logic has left the chat.
It shouldn't be ours, though. This is the only game I own where I have to do this manual updating of DLCs each new version. It didn't really bother me before as I'd pick what I wanted to update, but now there's the added wrinkle. It still seems unnecessary that this backwards compatibility was changed at all. If you have a lot of DLCs, as I do, it's not that easy a process and another headache to deal with since the DLCs don't' always show that you own them unless you update them. And I don't want to appear like I'm whining, but since this game has a lot of senior players (me included), I think that also could have been given a little consideration.
If feel as though it's completely unnecessary to have backwards compatibility. This technique, though slightly time consuming brings in new players. Which is good
First of all, I have like $1000 worth of DLC, so that process takes me like an hour. Second of all, it means there’s 5-6 (in some cases) overlapping versions of the same DLC in the store making it confusing for people that are new to the game and have trouble figuring out what to do. I don’t have many issues figuring it out but it was common on the Facebook group to see people struggling with this. I dunno I am kinda done with this game overall tbh because it turned into a blurry mess. I tend to just recommend people don’t buy DLC these days until they get this thing fixed one day (if ever).
