Sony introduced a perk for owners of the new PlayStation 5 console in late 2020, called the Playstation Collection. However, you’d better hurry and claim it if you haven’t, because it’s being discontinued soon.
The Playstation Collection is a selection of 19 games that represent some of the highlights of the last console generation, and will close the store on May 9, 2023.
The only snag is that you have to be subscribed to the PlayStation Plus service to unlock them. And while you can claim these classics once after May 9th, you’ll need to have an active Plus subscription to do so. The games are also only available to PS5 owners, not PS4 owners.
19 free games for PlayStation
Here’s that list of the 19 PlayStation Collection games, along with their aggregate Metacritic review score, if you’re only interested in the absolute classics:
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Batman: Arkham Knight (87/100)
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Battlefield 1 (89/100)
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Bloodborne (92/100)
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Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Zombies Chronicles Edition (81/100)
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N. Sane’s Crash Bandicoot Trilogy (80/100)
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Days Gone (71/100)
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Detroit: Become Human (78/100)
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Fallout 4 (87/100)
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Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition (77/100)
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God of War (94/100)
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Second Famous Son (80/100)
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Monster Hunter: World (90/100)
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Mortal Kombat X (83/100)
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Ratchet and Clank (85/100)
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Resident Evil 7 Biohazard (86/100)
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The Last Guardian (82/100)
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The Last of Us Remastered (95/100)
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Until Dawn (79/100)
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Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (93/100)
PlayStation Plus tiers explained: Essential vs Extra vs Premium
Still not signed up to PlayStation Plus? This is where it gets a bit complicated, as there are three tiers of Plus subscriptions: Essential, Extra and Premium.
PlayStation Plus Required It is the cheapest of the series. It gets you access to the Collection games as well as a handful of others to claim each month, cloud game save saves, and access to online multiplayer features. It costs £6.99 a month or £49.99 a year.
Playstation Plus Extra offers a library of PS4 and PS5 games that you can play as long as your subscription is active. These are downloaded to your console, as if you had purchased the game.
You can explore the entire PlayStation Plus Catalog on Sony’s website. Highlights include Assassin’s Creed Origins, Death Stranding, and Demon’s Souls – just a few choices among hundreds.
Additional membership costs £10.99 per month or £83.99 per year.
PlayStation Plus Premium It is the highest series. It adds cloud game streaming, meaning you don’t have to wait for titles in the PlayStation Plus Catalog to download and install. And it adds the retro Classics catalog. There are more games from the PS3, PS2, and PS1 console generations, as well as handheld PSP titles. These need to be streamed, rather than downloaded, so you’d better have a decent home internet connection.
PlayStation Premium costs £13.49 or £99.99 per month.
Which series should you choose?
If you subscribed to PlayStation Plus years ago and want roughly what you had then, choose Essential.
However, it might be an idea to subscribe to Premium for a month and see how much you actually use its higher end features before settling on your perfect set.