Sony has surprisingly announced the first-party blockbuster Horizon Forbidden West is coming to PlayStation Plus members as a free game next week.
The exclusive action RPG is one of the PS5 console’s best games and will arrive on the subscription service (for Premium and Extra members) just 12 months after going on sale. It’s a significant move from Sony as it seeks to make PlayStation Plus as attractive to gamers as Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.
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While Microsoft offers those first-party games on day one for Game Pass subscribers as a major selling point, Sony has expressed reluctance to do so with its big in-house games.
That will almost certainly remain the case, but it does seem like Sony may be setting the precedent of one full year on sale before a game becomes available on PS Plus. Horizon Forbidden West will hit PS Plus on February 21 2023 and was released on February 18 2022. We’ll have to monitor other big first party games like God of War Ragnarok to see if other first-party games follow suit.
Elsewhere, Horizon Forbidden West headlines a bumper month of games for PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra subscribers – the company’s top two tiers.
Sony has announced it will be joined by The Quarry (PS4/PS5), Borderlands 3 (PS4/PS5), Outriders (PS4/PS5), Scarlet Nexus (PS4/PS5) and The Forgotten City. It’ll be joined by the PS4 versions of Resident Evil 7, Tekken 7, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Earth Defence Force 5, Oninaki, Lost Sphere, and I am Setsuna.
The top PlayStation Premium tier will also get a trio of PS1 classics, including Wild Arms 2, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, and The Legend of Dragoon. Finally, Premium subscribers will get the PS4 remake of Destroy All Humans!
All games will be available for Extra and Premium subscribers from February 21.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.