On Monday, PlayStation gave everyone a deeper look into what’s on the horizon for its new revamped PlayStation Plus service coming in June. For those that need a quick catch up, starting in June PlayStation has reorganized its online services PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now under one name. Before this restructuring, PlayStation Plus was how PlayStation owners gained access to basic services such as online multiplayer and free monthly games. PlayStation Now was Sony’s Game Pass like option where, for a monthly fee, PlayStation owners could play from the library of games currently available on Now. In this new format, all of this will be under the PlayStation Plus name and it will feature three tiers with varying levels of access.
In a PlayStation Blog post, we got to see what games are coming to this new PlayStation Plus service at launch. Considering this new service is likely meant to be in direct competition to Xbox Game Pass, a strong start would do a great job in establishing that Sony is serious about this new service. So how did they do? Well, when it comes to recent games it’s hard to argue against them doing anything besides leading with an incredible library. PlayStation Plus Premium and Deluxe subscribers are going to gain access to amazing games such as:
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- God of War
- Marvel’s Spider-Man
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Control: Ultimate Edition
- Dead Cells
- Hollow Knight
- Resident Evil
It’s worth noting that a lot of these games are not available on Game Pass and likely never will be with some of them being developed by PlayStation itself. Everyone knows strong third-party support is key to success though and this new service is going to have that with amazing Game of the Year caliber games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Control.
While the library of recent releases is strong, we unfortunately can’t say the same for the starting library of Classic Edition or PlayStation 3 era games. While both definitely feature a few gems, it feels far weaker in comparison to the PS4 and PS5 library. Some of the highlights of the Classic and PS3 game selections can be found below.
Classic
- Ape Escape
- Hot Shots Golf
- Tekken 2
- Jak and Daxter trilogy (all remasters)
- Rogue Galaxy (Remaster)
- Bioshock Remastered
- Borderlands The Handsome Collection
PlayStation 3 (Deluxe Only)
- Ratchet and Clank PS3 trilogy
- Infamous 1
- Infamous 2
- Devil May Cry HD Collection
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
Again, this isn’t a terrible collection of games and there are some definite classics on there, but the original PlayStation will be turning 28 in December this year. To have a classics collection that doesn’t include Ridge Racer, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or Metal Gear Solid feels like a wasted opportunity. The retro library needs some more love and hopefully will get some in the future.