The all-new PlayStation Plus has launched around the world, with multiple tiers offering various game libraries and privileges to different subscribers, but one thing hasn’t changed: every PS Plus subscriber, from Essential up through to Premium, gets free monthly games to keep. The July 2022 PS Plus have have now leaked.
When will PS Plus July 2022 games officially be announced and released?
Traditionally PlayStation Plus’ free monthly games have always been announced on the last Wednesday of every month at 4.30 PM UK time with the games going live the following Tuesday morning. This means we can expect Sony to confirm the free games coming to all tiers of PS Plus will be confirmed on Wednesday 29th June, and will then be made available on Tuesday 5th July.
What will the PS Plus July 2022 games be?
The July 2022 PS Plus Essential leak has come from the tried and tested source of billbil-kun, a member of French deals site Dealabs. They have an excellent track record going all the way back to the middle of 2021, accurately leaking the games from both PS Plus and Xbox’s Games with Gold. Here’s the three games:
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (PS5 | PS4)
- The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PS4)
- Arcadegeddon (PS5 | PS4)
Are these games any good? Well…. yes!
Crash Bandicoot 4 was the last game from Toys for Bob before they and every other Activision studio were marched off to the Call of Duty content mines. Following on from the popular N-Sane Trilogy which remastered the three original PlayStation games, Crash Bandicoot 4 took the trademark game formula and polished it to a fine sheen for a new generation.
In our Crash 4 review, Steve called it “the definitive Crash game”, saying that “Toys For Bob have taken all the series’ trademarks, refined them into a challenging and polished experience and given us tons of levels to play and secrets to hunt for.”
With Supermassive’s latest narrative horror game The Quarry out now via 2K, Bandai Namco are cheekily throwing the studio’s first The Dark Pictures Anthology title onto PS Plus. Man of Medan sends you out onto the high seas with a haunted ship looking to off your hapless crew. In our Man of Medan review, Tuffcub said, “It’s an excellent night or two’s entertainment with a bunch of mates in a dark room and plenty of beer, though playing by yourself or online with a chum is an altogether more muted experience. This is a fair start to The Dark Pictures Anthology.”
Lastly we have Arcadegeddon, a vibrant co-op shooter from Illfonic, who are best known for their asymmetrical multiplayer games Predator: Hunting Grounds and Friday the 13th: The Game. This time around they’re embracing vibrant colours in a 90s punk rock aesthetic, as well as a greater focus on cooperative play for up to 4 players. This is a launch day release into PS Plus, aiming to grab as big a player base as possible.
Can I still download the June 2022 PlayStation Plus Games?
Absolutely! The PlayStation Plus games for June included the excellent God of War revival, the anime action of Naruto to Baruto: Shinobi Strikers, and family friendly Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. You have right up until the July selection of games goes live to grab them.
What’s with the whole PlayStation Plus relaunch?
The PlayStation Plus relaunch has now rolled out around the world, transforming the PS Plus we once knew into a three tiered subscription service that bundles in and expands what was once PlayStation Now. The classic PS Plus is now called PS Plus Essential, giving access to online multiplayer gaming, cloud save backups, exclusive offers and at least 2 free monthly games. PS Plus Extra then adds a catalogue of PS4 and PS5 games into the mix, while PS Plus Deluxe and Premium (depending on your region) adds older PS2, PS1 and PSP game emulation, and game streaming for PS3 and other titles.
MrYd
A good selection there, and answers the question of “Will the Essential games be shit to persuade you to get Extra/Premium?”. But maybe it’s just the first month and they’ll be shit next month.
But, Man of Medan is already on PS+ anyway. So are we going to a couple of games plus an extra one from Extra/Premium every month? Quite possible.
And Arcadegeddon isn’t launching straight onto PS+. It launched last July. So a desperate attempt to get some multiplayer game nobody’s heard of to take off? It may or may not work. A year after release? Probably not going to work.
Stefan L
I imagine Sony will be careful not to use too many games already on the Extra/Premium library for Essentials each month, but they’re also trying to cater to several different audiences with the games that they give out. Extra/Premium subs are going to be the minority of subscribers for a long time, and same is true of PS Plus Collection games being included for PS4 owners.
As for Arcadegeddon, it was in Early Access for the last year and 5th July is the 1.0 release. Could’ve lobbed the same statements at Deep Rock Galactic or countless other games that tread the Early Access path.
MrYd
Ok, Arcadegeddon might be in Early Access, although there’s no mention of that on the PS store. But DRG went straight onto PS+ as a proper, not early access game. It might have taken an early access route on other platforms.
Good luck to them though. It looks like the sort of thing that might be an entertaining distraction, and probably wouldn’t do too well if it wasn’t “free”. I’ll give it a go at least.
And I think Sony will be careful not to duplicate games too much. But we’ve had pretty much 1 every month this year that was already on PS Now, the PS+ Collection, or EA Play. Ok, EA Play isn’t included with PS+. So we can probably let them off there. Especially if everyone’s letting MS get away with claiming EA Play games count as part of Gamepass.
Stefan L
Yeah, it’s got an Early Access label on Epic’s store, but not on PlayStation. I don’t think the PS Store has anything that does that. Early Access is a dirty little secret in Sony’s eyes.
Dominic L
Will give Crash 4 a go with the boys – should be fun!
stigdu
Man of Medan is really good. It was my favourite of the anthology so far. Of course, The Quarry is even better and Until Dawn the best game they’ve done IMHO.