Sony Santa Monica’s stunning 2018 series revamp God of War is almost certainly part of the PS Plus Essential lineup for June 2022, with confirmation now coming from two separate and historically reliable sources. While this rumour has been met warmly by fans waiting patiently for God of War Ragnarok – many believe the original’s giveaway signals the start of PlayStation’s marketing campaign for the hotly anticipated sequel – it’s left some subscribers scratching their heads.
The Japanese giant already announced that God of War will be part of the new subscription tiers PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium, making its inclusion with PS Plus Essential a lot less valuable to those paying up for the top tier. In addition, the game is also included with the PS Plus Collection for PS5 owners and has been part of the PS Now selection for quite some time. While the latter will become defunct in the coming weeks, it means the title is effectively set to be part of every single subscription Sony offers.
Now, while we still will need to wait for official confirmation of God of War’s inclusion, it’s looking like a lock. And considering this is set to be the first month of Sony’s revamped service, it raises interesting questions: just how much crossover will there be between PS Plus Essential and PS Plus Extra (and, indeed, PS Plus Premium) moving forwards? Historically, there was a lot of crossover between PS Plus and PS Now, but Sony was able to justify it on the basis of them being distinct services. That’s not the case with the new PS Plus.
It’s an interesting situation, and equally fascinating that this question appears set to rear its head in the very first month of the revamped PS Plus’ launch. You’d think Sony would have had the foresight to predict a situation like this, but seeing as we still don’t have a complete list of All PS Plus Games yet, nothing this company does surprises us anymore.
[source News: Rumour: PS Plus Games for June 2022 Leaked Early]
Comments 60
Sony did something similar with TLOU Remastered when TLOU II was around the corner, maybe we'll get some Ragnarok news or a standalone State Of Play date announced at this week's SoP!
It's only disappointing because it's the flagship game this month, leaving anyone who has access via any other avenue without anything of value from this month's Essential tier offering.
@theheadofabroom It's such a "Sony" thing to do to launch the revamped subscription, and basically raise these questions in the very first month.
I get they probably have Ragnarok marketing plans, which is exciting, but come on...
Sometimes I think Sony is so disconnected that one department has no idea what the other is doing — even down to the details of these different subscription tiers.
While it is lame for a game to be offered across every single tier in PS+, diminishing the overall value, there is a group the inclusion of God of War on the Essential tier will satisfy because they don't have the higher tiers of PS+ or a PS5. Even for those that have access to the game via other means (higher PS+ tiers or via PS5), giving away the game on the Essential tier is effectively giving you your own copy available forever as long as you subscribe.
I already own the game, so I get absolutely nothing out of its inclusion in PS+ except the comfort in knowing this is surely being done to drum up excitement for the impending sequel!
@TheCollector316 I can see it from that perspective, but there's a danger that PS Plus Essential could become irrelevant to PS Plus Extra/Premium subscribers, because Sony could use your justification to effectively pool from the list of Extra/Premium games to give Essential members something to play — basically rendering that tier pointless for members of the higher ones.
It's just Sony being Sony. Is anyone really surprised anymore? I went back to just buying and enjoying games as intended (having paid for Game Pass Ultimate for over a year).
Seems like we had this issue with Days Gone last year too. I have access to it through two different sources.
There definitely is a watering down of the PS+ offerings over recent months. It’s beginning to feel like the Xbox Games with Gold service that we’ve been saying for a while “well at least this month is better than what GwG gave out….” And now here we are — in the same boat.
with each passing day ps plus becomes less and less worth subscribing to
Games With Gold have also been subject to repeat territory recently with games like Hydro Thunder Hurricane and Super Meat Boy. At least with the PS+ situation, GoW 2018 strongly hints at GoW Ragnarok news.
get2sammyb wrote:
Of course the inverse of that is also true: if the best games are given away for free to Essential tier customers, what's the value of Extra? And what's the value of Premium beyond streaming (which was why Now never did very well)?
My plan is still up upgrade the rest of my subscription to Extra until it runs out at the start of December, possibly even upgrade again to Premium for November, but if the games routinely come to Essential, that's where I'll end up when my subscription lapses. Previously I'd been assuming I'll end up on Extra for most of the year, upgrading to Premium for a month or two at the end of each sub.
I haven't downloaded a single PS Plus game this year. That won't change this month.
A very bad call from Sony. I think that the PS+ Collection shoud have been for all PS4 and PS5 users.
@Th3solution Nah, it's got a long way to go before it's that bad.
The only way this is worth it is if they're planning to remove God of War from the extra tier, because only the essential tier let's you keep games for the entire duration of your subscription.
@Hypoman eh, the collection makes sense as a lure for people buying a PS5, because there aren't really enough current gen only games to entice people right now. It's a value-add for your £450 or whatever it costs in your region.
@get2sammyb "because Sony could use your justification to effectively pool from the list of Extra/Premium games to give Essential members something to play — basically rendering that tier pointless for members of the higher ones."
Of course it's pointless. The point is that you get access to a great number of games that Extra/Premium tiers offer.
Sony's quality of first party games is inversely proportional to the quality of their subscription service.
Oh, boy.
@Hypoman the collection was always ment for ps5 , either to buy one or for new playstation users that never played those games.
It's almost as if, I don't know, simply buying a game and enjoying it is too much to ask these days.
Sony PR team are big fans of Lee Dixon.
When he scored an own goal he went BIG. Epic own goals. When Sony get it wrong they love to go big and do it in style.
Doing this first month of service is so Sony. 😂
I have it in the Collection (not that I’m going to play it), but to have them double (triple) up so that those paying for the top tier get repeat offerings…that’s just not on. It was bad enough when they used to duplicate games across plus and now. Surely they can’t reduce the value of the premium tier even further by doing this.
@theheadofabroom
Well…. I know. But i think that strategy is failing because of the shortage of PS5 ‘s, Sony is messing up by deviding Playstation fans. (Sorry for my bad English)
Seems like they're trying to saturate the combined install base with the game before the marketing for Ragnarok starts.
I get it.
@get2sammyb Sony will reach peak Sony when soon after this they announce you get God of War as a pre-order bonus with GoW Ragnarok on PSN. 😂
A lot of players will only sub to the Essential tier, so this is a nice offer.
@Victor_Meldrew tell us how you really feel, why won't ya?
The name speaks for itself "PS Plus Essential". Meaning it's an essential service if you want to play online, the "free" game's are a bonus. Even if all four essential games are on Extra/ Primium, 1) you would have to pay extra to upgrade. 2) you are definitely not subing to Extra just for them four games. 3) People subing to Primium are subing for PS1/2/3 game's.
I honestly don't get the complaints. It would be like me subing to Extra then complaining I own most of the game's.
@rjejr Haha, don't rule it out!
LoL - this is a hilarious take. A company moves a title to their lowest version to attract more potential to the service as well as the pending sequel and you find a way to complain that it devalues the service of hundreds and hundreds of more games that people are paying just a few dollars for more a month.
Mental gymnastics gold medal here. Haha.
Clearly PS Plus Extra is totes different from PS Now, lol.
Not that many people that were interested in the game didn't otherwise have access to the game. Giving this out at this point probably costs them less sales than the Godfall demo edition.
@get2sammyb "Sometimes I think Sony is so disconnected that one department has no idea what the other is doing "
That was pretty much confirmed both by the story of the PS5 chassis designer having no idea he designed something too big with the original bigger draft, and also Ryan going with that statement on the lines of downplaying their future involvement in VR until some other company makes it big, 2 days before the hardware group announced PSVR2....
Meh, great game for more people to play 🤷🏻
Move along.
@uptownsoul Yup.
@rjejr You're missing the Sony opportunity of selling GoW next-gen remaster, only bundled with the $100 Ragnarok LE.
@NEStalgia as long as they don't change the actor and models for Kratos?
Obviously Sony is just teasing every God of War fan and some PS4 gamers who still don’t own one can now avail it if they subscribe on any of the PS Plus Tiers.well if the rumor is really true.
This looks like one of few months, when I won't grab anything. ...still need to Slay the Spire...
Surely there can't be that many PS4-only players who (1) haven't already purchased GoW and/or (2) haven't found someone with a PS5 to grant them access to the Plus Collection. This is to say nothing of the watering down of higher, more costly tiers by releasing it to Essential.
Far from Sony's worst move but definitely consistent with their usual bizarre behavior. Bout like Nintendo at this point.
@theheadofabroom The voice will remain Chris Judge, but the model and character design will be replaced with a Jackie Chan look-alike to more closely fit with his live action portrayal from the movies.
Who doesn't own the game at this point
The questions we want answers to, but we all know Sony won't bother
Everything going on with PS+ recently had made me realize that I just really want to be able play my own games online without all this. I get that PlayStation want to keep that behind a paywall. I can live with that but let me get online pay for $30 a year, I'll buy my own games ...
‘Interesting!’ Typical troll phrase.
Push surfing on pointless negativity. I remember when the negative spin was to have a tantrum because no AAA in PS+. What a surprise. 😎
Oh go on mob.
🙄
Again a lot of hullabaloo about nothing.
If this means essential users will be getting got soon I'm all for it
Oh Word.God of g.o.a.t 🐐 👑. Cant wait for another masterpiece in god of war ragnarok.word up son
I honestly fail to see the problem here. On the one hand, higher tiers come with enough of a truckload to make the content of standard IGC offerings feel like a footnote if you sign up for them. On the other hand, the PS Now/Game Pass DNA of these tiers comes with the risk of lineup rotations, so every Extra title temporarily also offered on Essential is a title you have a month-long opportunity to "secure" on your sub rather than leave it at Sony's mercy. Where are the downsides, exactly?
@get2sammyb Great point!
@TrickyDicky99
Right. If you have a PS5, that is.
If the leak is true might change to Xbox cause these are a joke not been disrespectful but come on PSN still waiting for games that I don't have
@TrickyDicky99 but last time I checked, that one already had quite a few games that used to be on IGC prior. What's one more? And that only applies to the lucky PS5 owners (besides some folks who arranged their account to be temporarily assigned to another person's PS5😄), whereas the current majority of subscribers can still be safely assumed to remain on PS4 for the oft-discussed variety of reasons.
GOW is too cheap, at current prices, to entice gamers to higher tiers. If 4 year old games (albeit a masterpiece) is the best they can do, I'm afraid they've failed before they even started. Plus most Sony fans have played this already. It's still sitting on my game shelf.
I see it as a positive, more chances for people to play the game and be caught up in time for Ragnarok's release!
@Shepherd_Tallon @Grumblevolcano @TheCollector316 @DonJorginho This theory just makes way too much sense, I will be shocked if we don't get a God of War Ragnarok themed State of Play this Summer, with a Fall 2022 release date (September if the rumors/leaks are true).
@nhSnork the issue is that God of War was like one of the five titles Sony originally used to hype the extra tier, and now it's becoming free on the lowest tier before the higher tiers even get launched (in most of the world).
I can’t believe Sony. Is doing gow on its first month ! It’s been on psnow forever. Now they are going to replace the psnow games with “big titles” that most of us have already played. I enjoyed games like everyone gone to rapture and other smaller titles but now they will recycle the same games we already own
There is only like one guy in the world who hasn’t played god of war before! It’s likeThe main reason you buy a PlayStation 4. Now Sony expects us to be happy but most of its core base finished it 2 years aho
God of War was one of the most overrated games of recent times. I mean it wasn’t as catastrophically garbage as say, Assassins Creed games but it was pretty goddamn average. Again, games trying desperately to be films… boring.
@uptownsoul which is what they are going to do slowly but surely....
@get2sammyb you really don't like sony
@Milktastrophe I've already commented on why having another option on the lower tier is a good thing due to the comparative distribution specifics. On the other hand, this said option will be gone two weeks after the higher tier's launch, so those it somehow rubs against the fur don't have much to "endure". Although I also don't quite see the point of using five specific games to advertise a tier whose primarily selling point is about offering dozens at a time.
When they announced the new service (the merge between Plus and Now) I was glad that we would not have any more overlap between the 2 services, nope guess I was wrong! SMH...
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