PSVR owners can rejoice (a little bit), as Sony wants gamers to celebrate five years of the PlayStation's dedicated virtual reality platform. To aid in these celebrations, it is giving away three free games. Well, it sort of is… as usual, there's a caveat.
Happy 5th Birthday PS VR!
It seems like only yesterday that Sony unleashed its PS VR system onto the unsuspecting public. It wasn't yesterday, though. It was October 13, 2016, when the PS' own virtual reality platform hit the shelves. Five years ago.
In a PlayStation.com blog post, Sony has revealed the top games that PSVR owners have been playing over the quinquennial, since the system saw light of day. These titles are the most popular, globally; have you played any of them?
- Rec Room
- Beat Saber
- PlayStation VR Worlds
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
- Resident Evil 7 biohazard
There appears to be a good mix of games there, including some that aren't dedicated VR titles. North America's list differs slightly, with Job Simulator and Firewall: Zero Hour kicking PS VR Worlds and RE7 out of the running. Obviously, while everyone was on lockdown, the US was at least pretending to be at work.
However, whoever the lunatics are that can play RE7 in VR, we salute you; your tenacity overshadows that of this writer, who struggles to play RE7 on a monitor without pausing for 20 minutes after each five seconds of gameplay. That game is certifiably terrifying, nevermind in VR mode!
Anyway, you want to know about these free PSVR games, right? OK, here's what you need to do to get them.
How to Get the Free Celebratory PSVR Games
In recent times, particularly during the COVID crisis, Sony has impressed its community with several initiatives, including Play at Home. This scheme gave free games away. To everyone, irrespective of what PS services they did or didn't subscribe to.
Well, Sony wants to give some free VR games away to celebrate five years of PS VR, but there's a catch.
The three free games (we're not sure which ones you'll get, yet) will only be available via PlayStation Plus. So, if you already subscribe to PlayStation Plus, and you also own a PS VR system, then you can benefit from these three additional games at no extra cost.
However, if you don't subscribe to PlayStation Plus, then you'll need to in order to get your hands on those extra games in November's PS Plus bundle.
How Do You Subscribe to PS Plus?
If you want the extra VR bounty PlayStation is offering in November, you'll need to subscribe to PS Plus. There are three tiers available, with each one having a different price. Here they are:
- 1-month PS Plus subscription: $ 9.99 per month
- 3-month PS Plus subscription: $ 24.99 (equivalent to $ 8.33 per month)
- 12-month PS Plus subscription: $ 59.99 (equivalent to just $ 5 per month)
As you can see, you save the most with a 12-month PS Plus subscription. Note that if you get any PS Plus games, they're only yours until you stop subscribing to PS Plus. Once your subscription ends, you'll lose access to those games until you resubscribe to the service.
To subscribe, simply head to the PS Plus page at PlayStation.com and buy a subscription. Easy!
Now You Can Get Your Extra PS VR Games
As usual with Sony, things aren't quite as clear-cut as you'd expect them to be. The free games aren't really free as you need a PlayStation Plus subscription to access them, and even then they're only yours until your subscription ends.
However, PS Plus is an excellent service, allowing you to play online multiplayer games (conjecture exists on whether gamers should have to pay for the multiplayer privilege) and you get a bunch of games each month for PS4 and PS5. Weigh that up, and $ 60 for a year becomes less of a big deal.
