July 2026 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now

Wow what a month 🫩

Couldn't see MWIII via the ps app

To be fair, if Modern Warfare was actually good, then this might be an okay month: unfortunately, it isn’t.

On a related note, just out of curiosity, has anybody played For The King II and can offer any insight/comments on how good (or not) it is? (Since PS doesn’t seem to have a review for it)

@stBoa Same.

A disappointing line up as usual

On one hand, CrossCode is really good.
On other hand, right now on steam it's cheaper than one month of psplus essential.

Probably the most depressing month in gaming since i remember.

This lineup is just a cherry on top.

CrossCode is pretty decent but yeah lackluster month.

The Call of Duty file size is ridiculous. Why on Earth is it so big?

For me, only CrossCode. Other 2 are meh.

Nice month to cancel your PS Essential membership for sure.

Sony are a joke and so are microsoft im angry with whats going on in the gaming world at the minute anyway rubbish selection of games

Anyone managed to add modern warfare?

Might give Crosscade a go some time, still plugging through various other games so will wait. All doom and gloom eh? Business as usual for me, nothing feels different at all.

I liked the MW III zombies mode.. before it started crashing and resetting my character progression & gear. Story & multiplayer were worse than in MW II.

None these for me just like last months. August there has to be one in there for me jeez feels like they're taking the pi×× at this point. Off topic I just randomly picked up WRC 2 and Stick of Truth physically for PS3. Recently got my PS3 slim out and started to enjoy some Yakuza Dead Souls and Resistance 3 again

CrossCode looks interesting. I'll check it out on the Portal.

The last COD I played was Black Ops Cold War. Played for an hour, then lost interest. Waste of time and SSD space.

Never heard of For The King II. Underwhelming month to say the least.

Must remember to add cod to the library and never download it. Thanks sony.

For the king 2 the best of a really weak month. At least we've got our annual cod out of the way now along with fifa, just the annual basketball and wrestling games to go and then we might get something worthwhile.

Just last week I brought back in to the PS ecosystem (second hand base PS5) …. And was hoping for a trio of bangers to justify a sub to Essential, but yeah this month certainly ain’t it!

I mainly want to sub for online play (MH Wilds) and also cloud saves, but I’ll sit back for a bit and look to solo a lot of Wilds I think.

I’m not particularly fussed by recent announcements, but I can see objectively that Sony’s recent gut shot to physical media is a really crap thing for the consumer in general

I’m loving the PS5 so far but expect I’ll stretch this console for as long as possible - no way I’m dropping $1000 for a PS6 that it effectively holding me ransom at the PS online storefront

How does cod do these days sales wise, feel like the hype is dead for them

Waiting to see what Extra has otherwise it’s been a poor month for me.

I should start taking notes on these month to month to understand better if I’m really getting value?

I’m not one of the physical zealots currently having a fit but Sony’s approach to that issue has given me an incentive to assess more whether I want to be tied to them in the future. I’ve already cancelled my re subscription pending their comms and understanding more how they intend to manage digital going forward.

A few more studios want shutting down and developers laying off just for that MW3 install size alone. Outrageous.

Cancelled my subscription in protest of Sony's move to monopolize the game market. Can count on one hand ps plus games I've played anyway

@FullMetalWesker to be fair, if they gave us three games I was interested in, this would be a pretty good month. Unfortunately they didn’t though 😔

Croscode is an amazing game. It is one of the best games I discovered through Game Pass and I highly recommend it. I didn't just buy it after playing it in GP, I bought it twice. I own it digitally on Xbox and physically on Switch. I been tempted to buy it again on Steam (it's on sale there right now for 4.99).

Obviously not a game for everyone, but its so good if its your jam!

So, does the recent news mean that Sony is no longer going to be sending me these games on disc? If so, I'm going to cancel my PS Plus sub immediately!

Crosscode is a pretty good monthly pick for me. It’s the kinda game I’ve never spent the money on, but I’m happy to add it to my “freebie” backlog for a rainy day.

@ecurb7 The worst part is sending all those disks back when you cancel ur subscription.

@ecurb7 Some digital outrages are ok.

@FullMetalWesker The MW3 campaign is terrible, but the MP is fantastic. In my opinion, better than any CoD since 2019.

@stBoa
there is 2 MW3 on psn !! ?
not include in psn Essential
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III
include in psn Essential
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® III - Pack Cross-Gen

I don't know why

@shamok ah ok thanks

Not super bothered about this month but I will give CrossCode a try!

@KillerBoy oh absolutely I was considering I’m canceling my PlayStation plus account. Sony wants to pull this prep with removing physical games like everybody else is doing counseling their PlayStation plus accounts and I think something made up my mind for me with this crap so thanks for nothing Sony. don’t get me wrong modern warfare III is a pretty fair game, but there’s a lot of other games out there. They could’ve given us right now. Sony should be kissing our A**ES!

@ecurb7 sounds to me like you’re defending Sony and you’re OK with them destroying physical gaming media!

@Ed_Zeppelin first of all we’re not throwing a bi*ch fit we’re completely pi**ed that Sony is trying to destroy physical gaming media for everybody by lying to everyone because the numbers don’t add up if you want nothing but digital I suggest you head over to steam. We purchased a gaming console for a reason so that we can play the games on disc and I’m glad you like wasting your money because there’s no resale value in digital gaming plus just like digital movies you’ll never even own the games you’re basically renting the license to play the game and Sony can take them away at any time. So I’d rather have the physical game than the digital. Why the hell else did I purchase the disc player for my PS5 Pro 2 months ago I would’ve never purchased it if I knew Sony was going to pull this 💩!

@1-Krazy-Superman It was just a joke ...

@1-Krazy-Superman A few points there, which I’ll try to address in turn.
The only numbers that matter are the ones Sony, and only Sony, have informing them of not just the ratio of physical to digital but also the revenue spread as a result, and how they want their business to progress in the future. People can haggle over 5-10% here and there online but it all means nothing.
I have a Steam Deck for Steam, and a Switch 2 and PS5, and use them all digitally by default. I find physical a faff, and make choices around the digital I buy based on what I think provides value to me. I tend to finish a game and move on, rarely going back, if I feel I’ve got my value at that point I personally feel less risk around that game disappearing - partly because that hasn’t happened in any meaningful way to me to date that’s felt unfair on Sony’s part.
Any Sony console you’ve purchased to date does support physical media, so they’re meeting your need at the point of purchase. If the PS6 doesn’t, don’t buy it. Simple. Sony’s numbers will assume some drop off but not enough to warrant a physical element, and I suspect the handheld factors into this decision.
If Sony removes a game licence digitally it’s my view that most physical will also break, the way they’re configured. History suggests we’ll also typically get 10-20 years plus before that happens and I trust my digital game to last that time. I’d trust a disk less, unless you just put it on a shelf, in which case what’s the point? It’s there to be played right?
Even if some games do drop off digital, there are too many games for anyone to play already so at a personal level the chances of a big issue there is very low. (Game preservation is a different issue I accept).
The nature of games, and the hardware, means perpetual availability is economically impossible in reality. The best we can hope for is clarity and ideally a long tail of support followed by moves to open source to allow those who want to to continue support. That’s how a lot of software works.

I was excited for CrossCode but that's because I didn't know what to expect. I wish people would stop saying that it's really good, this game needs to come with a warning. I played 11hrs and this is a total nightmare for me. The amount of puzzles is way too much, even the town area is a puzzle. For how cute and cozy it looks it's a very complicated game and it's not fun or enjoyable at all.