12 Major PS5, PS4 Games Leaving PS Plus, Including Horizon Forbidden West

Glad I played through Midnight Suns when I did. I own Horizon and NieR, so I'm good otherwise.

I really don't like the de-listing of HFW. HZD at least seemed like it could make sense due to the remaster rumours, and it didn't hurt so much seeing as a) It's old now and cheap as chips and b) It had already been given to PS+ base members, but this would set a different precedent that could seriously devalue PS+ Premium.

My optimistic hope is that this is happening because they're replacing it with the complete edition (inc. Burning Shores), and are just going to announce that close to the date next month. Fingers crossed.

@AK4tywill didn’t Spider-Man leave over a year again and never come back?

I was surprised to see Horizon Forbidden West on there to begin with. 18 months was a good run.

At least with the basic Essential tier, you don't have the issue of games you might have played at some point, whether indie or AAA, being yanked off your library at random.

I say that as a current but never again Extra subscriber. Obviously I understood the model when I got the sub, but it's turned out to grate on me more than I expected.

I have Horizon since launch. Sorry for Marvel Midnight.

So must be leaving because two possible scenarios. Either it's getting a PS5 pro patch with the hope of increased sales or maybe a bundle is on the way with the base game and the expansion for 50 if it's not already out? Or if the rumored horizon remake is real maybe bundle it with forbidden West for 70 and that will be the big pro release game

@ChrisDeku yes I think it was around the time the remastered version became available without needing the ultimate edition of miles morales

If you have missed out on Midnight Suns, I would say do not try to rush through it. It goes on sale very often.

@get2sammyb yeah hopefully we get some great games to replace them in September. I think it's time for tlou remake to be added.

Already owned all the games i cared about on this list

It seems like big third party games only stay on Extra for a few months. Bummed about missing Midnight Suns.

HORIZON IS THEIR OWN GAME? Absolutely ridiculous.

Not surprised since HFW was used as a test case to see if a MS GP style approach to to PS exclusives soon after release on Plus was worth it. Ended up costing them a lot of revenue.
Source? Insomniac leaks

Also, HFW and Midnight Suns are on sale very often and are worth buying since they're high quality games that are best played at your own pace.
.

@ChrisDeku Good catch, yes it did and I had completely forgotten. At least with that I felt it might have been partially out of their hands, what with Disney/Marvel owning the IP and a stake in the sales of the game. With Horizon, Sony don't have to worry about any other company's financial interests.

Sad to see Horizon leaving, but it’s been there for quite some time now and has been an asset for the service. If Sony were to perhaps add God of War or the Remake/remaster of The last of Us to the service in its place, I’m sure that would go a good distance to appeasing people.

Theoretically I’m disappointed to see HFW leave as I always wanted to get around to playing it. Realistically, I haven’t found the time since it’s been on and have played many newer games, so…

I really want to play more of these games but whenever I turn on my PS5 I just wind up booting up Rimworld(where's biotech, cowards!?)

Clearly Replicant is getting removed because they’re about to announce a new NieR game and they think people will buy it after the announcement…

…okay, maybe not. But I’ll spin anything in the hope of finally getting a new NieR game announcement 😂

@BeerIsAwesome yes, usually around 14days notice.

I own Horizon anyway. And got like 10 hours in before realising I bought a game I had very little interest in, wrongly assuming they’d attempt to make it more interesting than the first one. That being said, it should really be on here, it’s an older exclusive by now and we should be getting to the point where games like Gran Turismo and Ragnarok are being added.

Yikes I guess I'll be fiddling around with forbidden west this week. Can't be bothered to buy it when really all I want is just to fight some of the new robots and see how the graphics look in person

@BeerIsAwesome I believe they also discount the game in the store straight after as well, which is a really nice touch. Something I'd like to see Sony implement.

@MrSensical. Not really they treating it as an real rent service 🙄 plus people already bought it

@BeerIsAwesome not really that much but I know playstation dose

still dont understand why Sonys own games spiderman, last of us 2 and now forbidden west leave their own subscription service

I never even finished the first Horizon game which I have since like five years ago, but I guess that shows my interest in them.

How long is Midnight Suns?

They better not pull another late notification like they did this month

Only game I’m currently interested in playing when I sign up for a $15 month of Extra next month to play Plucky Squire is FF Crisis Core Reunion, so glad to see that isn’t being dropped yet. Oh and I may sign up next week to get Castle Crashers for $1.50. I already own it on PS3 but that system is just sitting unplugged on the floor like a fat bearskin rug, all of those controllers have issues so nobody wants to use them.

@nessisonett that'd make sense if Sony setup the Extra tier games catalog around allowing subscribers access to older first-party games, at that point we'd be right to expect games like God of War and Gran Turismo 7 on there, but that's not what Extra is. It's a tier that gives you access to a games catalog with both new and old games that Sony choose (providing other publishers/developers agree).

I'd imagine that as having games on a subscription service screws sales, and HFW is still a popular title, Sony are removing it in the hopes to see more sales revenue from it.

@breakneck Actually I assumed HFW was added to encourage more sales of the DLC. I certainly was able to buy the dlc despite previously selling my copy of the game due to this

@Mortal Then they shouldn’t have raised prices. You shouldn’t make a service worse while also making it more expensive but that’s basically the story of this generation.

I own Replicant on disc and used that disc to install it before enabling disc-less play via Plus.

Can I assume it will automatically default back to asking for the disc without needing to reinstall?

@NieR_Dark Personally I'm still waiting for Square to grow a pair and remaster the Drakengard trilogy. After all, Nier is technically a sequel to the first game.

Man Sony are some cheap MFs. First Spiderman now HFW. I guarantee that garbage company will slowly pull all there first party stuff off Plus.

@get2sammyb baffled that people seem okay with this removal. I don't even get your point. Like, I don't disagree that that is Sony's reasoning, that doesn't make it acceptable for customers of a service decreasing in quality and increasing in price.

@LowDefAl I would also find this very agreeable.

They teased they had something new with Yoko Taro which was going to be revealed early this year… and here we are still waiting!

@nessisonett ahaha! I agree with you there! My Extra expired in July, as to me, seeing as the majority of Extra games are smaller, lesser known titles, it appeared that the tier is more about giving you access to games you otherwise wouldn't play, and the odd AAA gets thrown on to make it seem more enticing. With the increase in cost though, the expense vs. value didn't work out for me.

My Extra runs out in a few weeks time and wont be renewing it seems the games are rotating out a lot quicker now. I have such a big backlog I never get round to playing the games in extra. I will miss the odd good day one game like Stray and Tchia, I will miss out on lucky spire which is a shame but extra doesnt have the value anymore because I dont have time to play that many games.

Love all the old jrpgs where it was easy to read and understand, then you have Star Ocean which has no text enlargement and seems made more for a monitor than a TV.

I once played a demo of alien isolation and I was no good at hiding, and i prefer stealth in non horror games where i can stealth kill. I get why it is this way in Alien Isolation, but as it's leaving soon maybe I should give it a proper chance.

Considering I have physical copies of the games out of those I’m interested in it doesn’t bother me much

@trev666
To make people buy them to carry on playing through them?

I don't understand why Sony take their own 1st party games off....

You'd think that first-party games such as HFW would be permanent mainstays on the service after fulfilling their standalone launch cycles. I get the strategy, but it greatly reduces the attractiveness of PS+.

No logic or reason to remove a Sony IP. It's they're own game so why remove it? It's not a good look

@rusty82 for the same reason they removed Spiderman before the release of 2, Horizon before the announcement of Horizon Adventures and The Last of Us 2 isn't in the service yet when there is a successful tv show out there. To sell.

When LEGO Horizon Adventures releases a portion of the market of that game will get interested in the real deal so instead of just paying the service that was never part of the plans but was forced by gamepass to exist, that people will have to buy the games.

If they are taking out Forbidden West that means LEGO Horizon Adventures is locked for this year, a matter of time before we get the release date.

@LowDefAl the leaks are fascinating when you ignore the Insomniac/Wolverine stuff (I'm getting the game, why spoil myself). From updated software sales, some of their internal thinking and they experiment a lot (Horizon on PS plus was one of them)

@GymratAmarillo they replied to someone on Twitter saying this holiday period. I'm expecting November.

@bindiana I mean one of the best rated games this year: Animal Well was day one too.

@breakneck yep it would make sense, just in time for Christmas shopping.

It’s understandable that third party games will be pulled from the service at random times due to contracts, but I’m not sure what they’re thinking with first party. Perhaps they feel like HFW will get a sales boost from the LEGO game coming out soon, but otherwise, I don’t really know why some first party comes to the service and some don’t. GoW Ragnarok still hasn’t been included, nor TLoU remakes. And yet Demon’s Souls and Returnal have been sitting there on the service since day 1. Maybe I just answered my own question - if a game sells well, don’t expect it to be on the service. Still, there’s a dartboard element to Sony’s decisions sometimes. I’ll be curious to see if Death Stranding or Ghost of Tsushima will be pulled as it gets close to their respective sequels.

@get2sammyb I’ve got way too much I’m already playing to fit it in at the moment. It’s usually on sale super cheap so I’ll probably just buy it eventually.

Don’t miss out on Spiritfarer, it’s a beautiful game.

I just started Marvel’s Midnight Suns yesterday, but a month should do it.

I’ve started using folders to sort games accessed through the upper tiers of PS Plus from those I’ve purchased or got through the essential level, but that’s only helpful going forward. I thought I had Cloudpunk to keep.

Is there any listing of the old PS Plus/new PS Plus Essential monthly games so I won’t be surprised again? As far as I can see, the PlayStation list and Wikipedia both lump all PS Plus tiers together.