All together now
PS5 and PS4 games combine for PS Plus Extra’s Game Catalogue
Which brings us to the modern era. As far as PS Plus’ tiers are concerned, PS5 and PS4 games are treated the same, as part of PS Plus Extra and beyond’s Game Catalogue (PS5 owners also get an expanded vault of PS4 blockbusters called The PS Plus Collection). At launch, there’s annoyingly no easy way to filter PS5 games from PS4 ones or vice versa – PS Plus’ menus are a bit of a mess to navigate in general.
Despite Extra being the middle tier, it is ironically home to all of the premium gaming content PlayStation has to offer (upgrading to the tier actually named Premium means you’ll be able to stream games too). Huge games here will rightfully draw many in. There are PS5 exclusives like Demon’s Souls and Returnal, which make fantastic use of the new hardware, and it’s great to be able to just give them a go, especially if their reputed difficulty makes you unwilling to pay the hefty new-gen price tag.
Big cross-platform games also feature, from first-party options like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales to third-party ones like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (and even second-party in the shape of Death Stranding Director’s Cut). You’ve also got Ghost Of Tsushima, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, Control, Red Dead
Redemption 2, Horizon Zero Dawn… It’s a hefty list containing nearly 400 titles, most of which are worth fooling around with. PS Plus Extra gets you a lot of bang for your buck.
MY DAY ONES
Many of these games are quite recent, but it’s important to note that PlayStation has specifically said its biggest releases won’t be on the PS Plus platform from day one. Considering the publisher’s commitment to blockbuster single-player games like the upcoming God Of War
Ragnarök, it makes perfect sense to not have these from launch, but we can expect online releases to be a different story – that’s what we got with Destruction
All-Stars way back when, and Arcadegeddon just last month (both in what would now be considered the Essential Tier).
In addition, some small but mighty releases will pop up on PS Plus Extra and beyond, like the just-released Stray. As with PS Now, expect there to be a lot of rotation, and more than a few pleasant surprises along the way.