By You lose 22 games, you get 10 back
- by Liam Croft
They say things sometimes have to get worse before they can get better, so let’s hope that’s the situation PS Plus finds itself in. Tuesday, 20th May 2025 represents a double whammy of negatives for the subscription service: 22 games are leaving and they’re being replaced with one of the membership’s worst updates in years.
We communicated this long list of PS Plus expiration dates last month, but their imminent removal has been made even worse by the measly selection of titles set to replace them. The following 22 PS5, PS4, and even PS3 games will not be part of PS Plus Extra or PS Plus Premium from Tuesday, meaning you’ll have to buy them to continue playing:
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS5, PS4)
- MotoGP 24 (PS5, PS4)
- The Sims 4: Island Living (PS4)
- Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
- Resistance 2 (PS3)
- Walkabout Mini Golf (PSVR2)
- Synth Riders (PSVR2)
- Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (PSVR2)
- Before Your Eyes (PSVR2)
- The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (PSVR2)
- The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution (PSVR2)
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (PS4)
- Stranded: Alien Dawn (PS5, PS4)
- The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (PS5)
- Ghostrunner (PS5, PS4)
- Payday 2: Crimewave Edition (PS4)
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS4)
- Journey to the Savage Planet (PS5, PS4)
- Portal Knights (PS4)
- Enter the Gungeon (PS4)
- Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4)
- inFAMOUS: Second Son (PS4)
The cherry on top is that, in the case of the two Resistance instalments from the PS3 generation, Sony is completely removing the ability to play them on PS5 and PS4. Since they can only be streamed over the Internet via the PS Plus Premium-exclusive service, they’re not on sale in the normal PS Store.
It’s a confusing move, especially when Insomniac is a first-party studio owned by PlayStation, so there’s no need for a deal to be struck with an external company. This is an entirely in-house effort, and taking them away means the two Resistance games will only have been playable on PS5 and PS4 for six months.
Those 22 titles will be replaced with 10 new ones, meaning there’ll be 12 fewer games on PS Plus from Tuesday. The membership will objectively offer worse value for money after the refresh, and the games on the way are hardly top-level efforts either.
Sand Land and the fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising both offer good experiences, and so too does the remastered S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Trilogy. However, there’s just one new PS Plus Premium game: Battle Engine Aquila. No, we hadn’t heard of it either prior to Wednesday’s announcement.
It’s bad timing for Sony to have such a long list of games leaving the service at the same time as the update cycling new ones in is more than 50 per cent smaller. Let’s hope it gets back on track in June.
Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he’s found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.