Sony has shared the full library of games that will be available via its upcoming, three-tier subscription service, and as terrible as subscription services are, at least there are going to be some interesting games to play.
The three-tier system starts with the existing PlayStation Plus subscription, which will give you a couple of new games each month. The whole service launches in June, and those games haven’t been announced yet. The second tier offers an expanded library of PlayStation 4 and 5 games. These are:
PlayStation 5
- Death Stranding Director’s Cut (Kojima Productions)
- Demon’s Souls (Bluepoint Games)
- Destruction AllStars (Lucid Games)
- Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut (Sucker Punch)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games)
- Returnal (Housemarque)
- The Artful Escape (Annapurna Interactive)
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
- Control: Ultimate Edition (505 Games)
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Square Enix)
- Mortal Kombat 11 (WB Games)
- NBA 2K22 (2K Games)
PlayStation 4
- Alienation (Housemarque)
- Bloodborne (FromSoftware)
- Concrete Genie (Pixelopus)
- Days Gone (Bend Studio)
- Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition (Housemarque)
- Death Stranding (Kojima Productions)
- Everybody’s Golf (JAPAN Studio)
- Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut (Sucker Punch)
- God of War (Santa Monica Studio)
- Gravity Rush 2 (JAPAN Studio)
- Gravity Rush Remastered (JAPAN Studio)
- Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
- inFAMOUS: First Light (Sucker Punch)
- inFAMOUS: Second Son (Sucker Punch)
- Knack (Japan Studio)
- LittleBigPlanet 3 (Sumo Digital)
- LocoRoco Remastered (Japan Studio)
- LocoRoco 2 Remastered (Japan Studio)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games)
- Matterfall (Housemarque)
- MediEvil (Other Ocean)
- Patapon Remastered (JAPAN Studio)
- Patapon 2 Remastered (JAPAN Studio)
- Resogun (Housemarque)
- Shadow of the Colossus (JAPAN Studio)
- Tearaway Unfolded (Media Molecule)
- The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio)
- The Last of Us Remastered (Naughty Dog)
- The Last of Us: Left Behind (Naughty Dog)
- Until Dawn (Supermassive Games)
- Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (Naughty Dog)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog)
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Naughty Dog)
- WipEout Omega Collection (Clever Beans and Creative Vault Studios)
- The Artful Escape (Annapurna Interactive)
- Ashen (Annapurna Interactive)
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft)
- Celeste (Maddy Makes Games)
- Child of Light (Ubisoft)
- Cities: Skylines (Paradox Interactive)
- Control: Ultimate Edition (505 Games)
- The Crew 2 (Ubisoft)
- Dead Cells (Motion Twin)
- Far Cry 3 Remastered (Ubisoft)
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (Ubisoft)
- Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft)
- Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition (Square Enix)
- For Honor (Ubisoft)
- Hollow Knight (Team Cherry)
- Legendary Fishing (Ubisoft)
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Square Enix)
- Mortal Kombat 11 (WB Games)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- NBA 2K22 (2K Games)
- Outer Wilds (Annapurna Interactive)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)
- Risk: Urban Assault (Ubisoft)
- Resident Evil (Capcom)
- Soulcalibur VI (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- South Park: The Fractured but Whole (Ubisoft)
- South Park: The Stick of Truth (Ubisoft)
- Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Ubisoft)
- STEEP (Ubisoft)
- The Crew (Ubisoft)
- The Division (Ubisoft)
- Trackmania Turbo (Ubisoft)
- Transference (Ubisoft)
- Trials Fusion
- Trials of the Blood Dragon (Ubisoft)
- Trials Rising (Ubisoft)
- Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft)
- Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
- ZOMBI (Ubisoft)
PlayStation VR
- Eagle Flight (Ubisoft)
- Space Junkie (Ubisoft)
- Star Trek: Bridge Crew (Ubisoft)
- Werewolves Within (Ubisoft)
There are some good games in that list, obviously, though it is both telling and deeply concerning that Sony has done so little to engage with third parties. A couple of big players and a couple of games from Annapurna Interactive hardly represent the depth and breadth of what was available on both consoles. You could argue that Sony is simply trying to launch with a bang, but then Sony is also so fairly committed to trying to be the Disney of video games that it’s also entirely possible that this entire subscription service is structured around giving any company that isnt a dystopian-sized corporation the shaft. I am deeply unhappy with this list of games and immediately suspicious about Sony’s priorities with its subscription game library.
Finally there are the retro game collections, which are available on the highest tier of subscription, and you’ll get PlayStation One, Two, Three and PSP games here (PS3 games are streaming only, but the others all allow you to download and play off the hard drive). The initial launch list here is:
PlayStation
- Ape Escape (JAPAN Studio)
- Hot Shots Golf (JAPAN Studio)
- I.Q. Intelligent Qube (JAPAN Studio)
- Jumping Flash! (JAPAN Studio)
- Syphon Filter (Bend Studio)
- Mr. Driller (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Tekken 2 (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Worms World Party (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Worms Armageddon (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
PlayStation 2
- Ape Escape 2 (JAPAN Studio)
- Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (JAPAN Studio)
- Dark Cloud (JAPAN Studio)
- Dark Cloud 2 (JAPAN Studio)
- FantaVision (SIE)
- Hot Shots Tennis (JAPAN Studio)
- Jak II (Naughty Dog)
- Jak 3 (Naughty Dog)
- Jak X: Combat Racing (Naughty Dog)
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (Naughty Dog)
- Rogue Galaxy (JAPAN Studio)
- Siren (JAPAN Studio)
- Wild Arms 3 (SIE)
PSP
- Super Stardust Portable (Housemarque)
PlayStation 3
- Crash Commando (Creative Vault Studios)
- Demon’s Souls (From Software)
- echochrome (JAPAN Studio)
- Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (JAPAN Studio)
- Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (JAPAN Studio)
- Ico (JAPAN Studio)
- inFAMOUS (Sucker Punch)
- inFAMOUS 2 (Sucker Punch)
- inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood (Sucker Punch)
- LocoRoco Cocoreccho! (JAPAN Studio)
- MotorStorm Apocalypse (Evolution Studios)
- MotorStorm RC (Evolution Studios)
- Puppeteer (JAPAN Studio)
- rain (JAPAN Studio)
- Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty (Insomniac Games)
- Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (Insomniac Games)
- Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus (Insomniac Games)
- Resistance 3 (Insomniac Games)
- Super Stardust HD (Housemarque)
- Tokyo Jungle (JAPAN Studio)
- When Vikings Attack (Clever Beans)
- Asura’s Wrath (Capcom)
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (Konami)
- Devil May Cry HD Collection (Capcom)
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- F.E.A.R. (WB Games)
- Lost Planet 2 (Capcom)
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (Koei Tecmo Entertainment)
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (Rockstar Games)
Again, there are some good games here. Playing the original Demon’s Souls will be a delight (as much as I enjoyed the remaster), and Tokyo Jungle, Rain, and Puppeteer represent Sony at its absolute best, before it became the wannabe Disney that it has since become. I’ve also never played Enslaved (I know), and I’m pretty sure I’ll love that, and the PS2 catalogue contains some JRPG and horror classics I won’t mind replaying.
But again, these lists are incredibly shallow and predictable. The PlayStation One and 2 had such massive libraries of games that are in danger of being lost and forgotten, and instead, all Sony’s managed to cobble together are the safest and most known pile of stuff… with almost all of it being stuff Sony already owns. The lack of third party support for these retro games is deeply concerning.
All in all, don’t delete those emulators just yet. The appeal of this subscription service, beyond to the most sycophantic of Sony fans, is incredibly limited indeed.
But at least we’ll be able to play Tokyo Jungle again.
Hi!
I loved the news that we will be able to play Tokyo Jungle again, one of my favorite games! I had already given up hope, as I got rid of my PS3 to buy the PS4 at the time. Naive that I am, I thought I could play PS3 games on PS4, but this is only happening now, after years.