Hogwarts Legacy is free to download and play right now

September is the dreaded back to school season, so there's no better time to grab your spell books and hop on the Hogwarts Express.

I'm not sure there can be anyone in the world left who has yet to play Hogwarts Legacy, given that the open-world adventure has sold roughly a gazillion copies and is already generating sequel discussions. But, on the off-chance you're one of the few who have yet to check it out, the Harry Potter RPG is currently free to download and play for certain users.

Take a tour of the Hogwarts Legacy Houses below!

Yes, PlayStation users can get a feel for Hogwarts Legacy now thanks to a free trial period - although it's unlikely you'll be entirely happy with the caveats.

Hogwarts Legacy is available to play for free via PlayStation Plus Premium's much-maligned Game Trials feature. For those who might not be aware, Game Trials are available for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, effectively giving them the chance to go hands-on with certain releases before they commit to buying them. So they're demos, basically.

Unfortunately, the Hogwarts Legacy trial lasts all of 45 minutes, which is maybe just enough time for you to create a character and get through the tutorial area. If you're lucky you might just walk through the front doors of Hogwarts, but probably not.

When you compare this to the five-hour trial for Cyberpunk 2077, it's hard not to be a bit mad at Hogwarts Legacy. 45 minutes is nowhere near sufficient time to get a feel for an open-world RPG, much less one that drags you through a lengthy prologue before getting to the good stuff.

Still, if you're really desperate to try it out and have a subscription to PlayStation Plus Premium already, you may as well go give it a look.