
Sony has revealed the PS Plus Essential games members can look forward to for the month of September 2023. Saints Row was already leaked at the start of the week, but the full PS5, PS4 lineup — which can be downloaded from Tuesday, 5th September 2023 — is as follows:
- Saints Row (PS5, PS4) | Review
- Generation Zero (PS4) | Review
- Black Desert - Traveler Edition (PS4) | Review
As part of the announcement, Sony also revealed the prices of all three PS Plus tiers will be increasing drastically. You can click here for more information.
The open world title from Volition is the main PS Plus Essential headliner for September 2023, granting subscribers on the base tier access to the fully updated reboot. While Saints Row wasn't met with the most positive critical reception at launch, the game has been continually updated and now has three expansions to its name. Those are The Heist & The Hazardous, Doc Ketchum's Murder Circus, and A Song of Ice & Dust. We share a verdict on the DLC in our Saints Row Expansion Pass Review.
Meanwhile, Generation Zero is a pretty poor-quality open world game released for PS4. We awarded the game a 3/10 rating and concluded: "Even if you’re in love with its concept, Generation Zero is an experience you should avoid at all costs. Thanks to archaic co-operative design, an open world that feels sparse at even the best of times, and an inventory system that routinely works against you, disappointment takes centre stage here."
As for Black Desert, this is a bundle that gives you the base MMO experience along with The Traveler Item Pack. What do you make of this selection? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments 86
Well they can't all be winners I guess
They were like
Actively trying to pick the worst selection possible
Triple oof. Back to the backlog!
I’ve been interested in trying generation zero, but that review is pretty scathing. Curious if it’s better now after a few years of patches and content updates
kinda lame month again. I hope extra will be better
https://blog.playstation.com/2023/08/30/playstation-plus-monthly-games-for-september-saints-row-black-desert-traveler-edition-generation-zero/
The blog post also says that subscription prices for all 3 tiers are increasing starting September 6th.
Nothing for me this month. Tried a bunch of times to get into Saints Row, but it’s just not for me.
£120 for 12 months premium Plus now, gone up 20 quid🫣
I have wanted to try Saints Row, yet every time I see material of it, video or images, I just sort of want to vomit.
It did make me think “Oh I like GTA of years gone by, maybe I’ll like it.”
But something about it seems really off.
But to be fair, can’t all be winners and I’m so busy with games at the minute it’s actually done me a favour.
I’ll dig into it at some point!
Thanks, Sony, I was too busy with my pile and upcoming releases anyway. :/
Maybe the worst month in a long time.
Add to library, never play, that's the psplus wayyyyy 😃
@Grumblevolcano Good catch, that's the real story here. Oof that's a pretty hefty rise too. £60 for Essential, £100 for Extra and £120 for Premium. I'm glad I subbed for three years during the last sale.
Feels like Jeremy Beadle is going to pop out from under my desk at any minute and reveal it was all a big prank.
@Grumblevolcano You would think it would make sense to have a killer month for essential to justify the increase
I was expecting Tales of Arise, as rumours floated, but we can't win every month.
Thankfully there is a poop-tonne of stuff coming out over the next couple of months that will keep me more than busy, so I'll add these into the library and no doubt never touch them.
"This price adjustment will enable us to continue bringing high-quality games and value-added benefits to your PlayStation Plus subscription service."
Erm....?
I think I'm good until December next year so stuff you, money-grabbing Fony!
£120 for Premium? Nah. I'm downgrading next year. I was already on the fence as to its value. Put 200 more PS1 and PS2 games on it and MAYBE I will return.
I'll give saints row a download, was never going to spend money for it.
Personally I would recommend everyone giving Generation Zero a try if you like big open world shooters. Played through the whole campaign coop with a mate and we had a blast. Some of the machines you fight are huge and take planning and fire power to take down. Hiding in houses when swarmed is the only way to survive. Liked how the story was revealed slowly through the game too.
Decent month for me.
@TBubs311
I grabbed it on Steam Deck, a month ago and I've had a blast with it. Its story is a tad thin, but its gorgeous and if you enjoy harder games I would recommend highly!
I’ve got the other Saints Rows from earlier PS+ monthly games, so I think I’ll give this one a miss. The other two seem average at best and I’m unlikely to be incentivised by an almost four year old MMO when Baldurs Gate 3 is out the day after this trio launches.
My sub runs out in Nov and I’ve had it since 2012, so I’m just going to think about whether I want to continue given Essential (my current tier) is going up another tenner next week.
Not a good way to “soften the price increase blow”, Sony.
However I’ve just reminded myself I can “cheat” the price rise by getting another years’ sub early so may just do that !
@Serialsid
I've played solo and still had a lot of fun with it, being swarmed is stressful, basically hunker down and hope they get bored and leave
Also the Swedish country side is pretty, shame it didn't release in this current state, think it would have done well
Played every Saints Row and avoided this due to reviews, good time to jump in.
Generation Zero is constantly floating in and out of top sales charts, and is meant to be a decent game.
Half decent offering, don’t be babies people. You’ll get your showcase soon enough.
Meh month, hopefully extra /premium is better. Premium better be offering more than just 3 games a month to justify the price increase.
An Avalanche game that’s bad (and not supported?), open world, play a teen with zero weapon skills and no combat experience. Well that explanation does fit the game. Not defending it, but can’t be worse than JC4, right?
Gotta do the Saints Row as I may pick up the dlc if I enjoy it. BDO, looks nice I guess?
Genuinely can't recall a worse month for the service.
Announced at the same time as subscriber stagnation reports and price increases across all membership tiers.
Amazing.
So glad I didn't buy SR now, especially considering it's a reboot many fans of the series aren't fond of
Such a crappy selection. And that increase in prices. Is like telling us to cancel our subscriptions... Well guess I won't take that "offer" again in November.
@Grumblevolcano INTERESTING THAT THEY SNUCK IN PRICE INCREASE FOR PS PLUS TIERS IN THEIR ANNOUNCEMENT AS WELL.
The typical corporate strategy: 'we are seeing a plateau of new subscribers and revenue and have little to offer from the first party front in the near future,... whatever should we do? well, we could work on creating more value and content to bolster perception.......... hahahahahahahah nahhhhh we will just increase the price for our current subscribers and bleed them dry!'
Horrible games.come on sony.anyways back to my backlogs.i got a lot of games to play anyways.word up son
I'll play that crappy new Saints Row game maybe. Did they make it better at least with the recent update? The other 2 games are Games with Gold level. No thanks
Wow, Sony is really scavenging the dollar shop bargain bin. September/October is going to be ridiculous when it comes to great releases anyways.
Wow, three bad games. That's hilarious. Great job, Sony!
Generation Zero is pretty damn good tbf, still gets supported and updated to this day. Can be pretty tough as well.
These are the games to accompany the price increase announcement. Yikes.
This month is gross.
Baldurs gate is out anyway 😜 might try SR.
I read about the price hike first and thought they would be announcing some great games to go along with it to try and justify it a bit and then found this. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm good thru December and then I think I'm done paying for online services. Already let my Switch NO lapse, no regrets.
Very bad selection
Not a great look along with the price increase.
Gabbage. Hard pass for me thanks. ………. But at least we’re getting a 30% increase on membership fees in September 😉😂🤣😂🤣😂🙄🙄🙄🖕🏽
I guess they figured no-one would have time in September to spare on the monthly plus games, and offered a plate of tripe in stead.
This line up feeks like a kick in the teeth. Absolutely awful.
When you are trying to justiy severe price hikes, and competing with a rival service thats just about to give us Starfield and Motorsport, you shouldnt be announcing your worst line up yet.
I still think its good value for money, but Sony try so hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, its hard to credit.
all online filler games, only thing that is decent is the saints row game and they have a cheek to increase prices? smh
Yeah, this lineup isn't doing it for me. Largely more of a FF14 fan so I'm not interested in another mmo at the moment. Not interested in the new saints row game either. I might give generation zero a shot out of curiosity but I doubt I'll be playing it for a long time lol i am kinda surprised that it has been receiving a lot of updates though. One of those few rar elive service games that's still alive for some reason.
The games are subjective to your personal taste but that price for ps+ is ridiculous. My essential tier ends in December and I will probably let it lapse.
Where’s the inevitable poll „Are you happy with the games of PS Plus Essential for September 2023“? It will be a slaughter.
Could be worse, you could get these titles and the price for the tiers could be going up too... 😂😒
I shall do what I usually do; I shall add these titles to my library, but not play them!
What I don't usually do though is let my subscription lapse, which I will be doing this time. I don't really use it, and with the price hikes they have become even less value to me. If something of worth actually appears in the monthly games, I might consider resubscribing, but more likely, were that to happen, I'd just buy the game itself instead...
So around the Time they annouce they are gonna raise the price of ps plus tiers, they give us that junk, Saints row dreadful game
Black desert...some Korean junk covered in mtx which I can also play on my phone thanks sony, and generation zero is just some half below average first person shooter awful.month
What a big pile of crap, doesn't make the price increase worthwhile.
Aha, I waited and now I get Saints for free, awesome.
Kind of lame, but have been interested in Black Desert. Maybe I’ll try that when I have some time. And now don’t have to pay for Saints Row
the new saints row? no i'm good.
@playstation1995 facts. blasphemous 2 I shall continue onward with. If they think saints row remake is enticing they're delusional
The worst ps plus ever, this suck
So utter trash, trash and somewhat trash and a price increase...
Black Desert negotiated at talks that may have included Crimson Desert and potential Onsolecay-exclusivityay ? 🤫
If saints row is an easy platinum I’d probs stay for the duration but I bet it’s got silly 100% completion this and that
@johncalmc waving them tiny little hands
I wanted to play SR, so I'm interested --- but no doubt about it, this has to be the worst month. At least the worth month in recent memory.
This and the price hike — what are you thinking, Sony?
I am interested in trying out Generation Zero.
I expect it to be as countless other stream-library titles I've tried where I play maybe half an hour and then never touch again. It saves me money and eliminates my nagging feeling to try these games.
PS Plus Extra has also given me plenty of great games: Detroit: Become Human, Batman, Slay the Spire, X-COM 2, and so on.
@Mgene15. I dont say this but f👎uck sony for this move.thats a b🤔tch move.they greedy h😠es for that.word up son
People that are saying it’s way more expensive than gamepass. Are you ok???
Game pass ultimate is $17 a month so way more than 120 bucks a year
@EvenStephen7 unfortunately it’s just the reality of subscriptions. They WILL have to increase the price every now and then (Microsoft recently did the same with GP)
Expecting the price to stay the same forever is really strange thinking, no?
This is why I don’t use them and just buy my games.
Looking forward to gen zero. I hope it's as good as on PC.
Yeah, not a great month. Surprised Sony didn't add No Man's Sky as one of the free games; with a certain space related game coming out soon on Xbox it would've been good timing.
Sony reeking of early PS3 levels of arrogance again.
I’m not disappointed at all. I don’t have any of the three games, so I’m interested and intrigued. I’ll give ‘em a whirl.
@ArmoredMore No doubt — I actually work in streaming TV. So I agree — it’s about building a user base early on and then recouping costs down the line. Typically there’s a user threshold they have to clear first though. So for instance, Disney took a loss for a while on D+ until they hit a certain market penetration rate and steadied their platform with exclusive content before doing multiple price hikes a year.
The difference here is that the revamped service is still in its infancy — and hasn’t met on all of its initial promises. In many ways it feels like a WiP still. We know the hyper growth stage is over since the user base has plateaued, but I question what the market penetration rate is for premium. And then audiences are always more like to accept multiple, smaller increases over time over giant lump-sum ones.
@Netret0120 Not a surprise when the Sony fanbase has become as fanatical as it is. This is what happens when we have too many mega-fanboys who relentlessly praise, defend, and endorse a big corporation no matter what. The last time Sony had a fanbase like this was coming hot off the PS2, and we all know how that went.
Ah, so that's what the 20% hike gets you...🤔
@Beerheadgamer82 just as well I bought 3 years then last night with the 30% discount
Saints row is actually pretty good now.the other 2 I'll give a go
Focusing on the games and not the price increase since that is what this article is really about, I would have to say that this is one of the worst months for game quality. With that said, I'm actually happier with this than some other months. I know it sounds crazy, but there have been months (even recently) where I have skipped claiming any of the games as I wasn't interested in any of them, but I'm glad to see Saints Row being offered here. I'm more interested in trying that than some of the other previous titles offered.
I’m gonna close my eyes and pretend Generation Zero is Armored Core VI
worst month in years... ouch, that smarts. these are the games they are giving us in the same week that they are increasing ps+ essential by 40% here in canada? is jim having a bad day or something?!
Hard, hard pass on Black Desert. I would never recommend.
Pretty damn neat. Two action open-worlders including a driving one from a renowned series, as if to "make up" for me missing out on NFS Heat last September, and an MMORPG I would have quite enjoyed during my mobile acquaintance therewith if not for the touchscreen controls. And while the former two are more likely to be experienced on Deck in due time (although a legal access box to check somewhere is still welcome since Volition stuff is locked on Steam these days), MMORPG compatibility remains anything but a given there, so chances are I'll revisit this one on my PS4 for the time being.
Still going to try saints row even though I avoided it like the plague at launch.
Maybe they're trying to lose subscribers? Terrible month + price increase announcement lol.
Would defo be interested in seeing what Generation Zero is like, especially at this point. Concept doesn't make a good game in itself of course, but I've always been curious about Generation Zero and maybe hook up with some folks.
@TBubs311 I wouldn't bother if I was you; I bought it on the cheap a few years back now, it's awful, like seriously bad. No updates could fix that.
@GZoo it does appear to have a fanbase. 7/10 on steam isn't terrible. Def looks like a marmite game though.
The least Sony could have done was make September's PS+ games great to coincide with the I'll recieved PS+ price gouge...err...hike.
Instead, it's a double whammy to PS consumers.
Oh well, it's been clear that arrogant Sony is back in full force going by their actions as of late. 🙄
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