Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation Plus Collection is set to be removed as a perk of the company’s online subscription service.
Announced via the PlayStation Blog, as of May 9, the PlayStation Plus Collection will no longer be accessible. The collection is a library of some of the best PS4 games exclusively available to PS5 owners with a PlayStation Plus membership. It’s been offered since the console launched in November 2020 and is arguably one of the service's most overlooked features.
At launch, the PlayStation Plus Collection offered 20 games, before being trimmed down to 19 when Persona 5 was removed last May. Several PlayStation first-party titles are currently offered in the collection including God of War, The Last of Us Remastered, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Ratchet and Clank. There’s also a range of third-party games such as Fallout 4. Mortal Kombat X and Resident Evil 7.
While its removal is disappointing, PlayStation Plus subscribers have until May 9 to claim all 19 currently available games in order to continue accessing them. Just to reiterate, if you add any of the games in the collection to your PS5 Game Library before the expiration date you will have access beyond May 9 so long as you remain subscribed to PlayStation Plus. So even if you've got a sizeable backlog already, be sure to redeem the entire PlayStation Plus Collection before then.
The removal of the PlayStation Plus Collection comes in the wake of the service being revamped last summer. The online membership service is now split into three tiers, Essential, Extra and Premium, but even after this change, the PlayStation Plus Collection remained accessible to all users regardless of tier level.
Sony is seemingly trying to position PlayStation Plus as a rival to Xbox Game Pass, but as of right now, it’s hard to argue that Xbox’s membership service isn’t the better value primarily because it offers Microsoft first-party games on day one. Furthermore, the unceremonious removal of the PlayStation Plus Collection certainly doesn’t help tip the balance in Sony’s favor, and the lack of any form of confirmed replacement is disappointing.
At least Sony has assured players that the removal of the PlayStation Plus Collection will not impact other aspects of the service, and that includes the rotating selecting of monthly games available to users on all three tier levels.
Speaking of which, February’s Monthly Games lineup has just been confirmed and it's a good one with PlayStation Plus subscribers getting access to OlliOlli World, Mafia Definitive Edition, Evil Dead: The Game and Destiny 2: Beyond Light from next week.
