PlayStation Plus latest free games are the worst-received this year

PlayStation isn’t having a good time right now, at least, not when it comes to its PS Plus subscribers. Each month a new list of free games is added, and each month the interest seems to take a deeper nose-dive than the last; October has been the worst-received month of the year thus far.

Previously, April 2023 was the worst month for PS Plus Extra, but October said hold my beer and came in at a whopping 11.05 per cent lower in terms of debut player count, aka the number of people playing the games when they're added. Also worth noting is the fact that only one game – Gotham Knights – from the entire October PS Plus list made it into the top 40 of PS4 and PS5 games. That’s gotta sting.

Seeing as it did the best of the bunch, watch the Gotham Knights Batgirl reveal!

With the likes of Alien Isolation, Dead Island, and Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, October looked to be a promising month, especially because PS was heavily appealing to the horror-loving masses in time for Halloween. After all, Dead Island has been described as one of the goriest horrors created, though if you’re including films in that mix, then the official title of scariest horror goes to Sinister.

So many decent games, so why did it all fall flat? Well, Reddit has some thoughts on this (as always). According to sotommy, the issue is more about the age of games and the likelihood that people have already played them, “I can't even play Gotham Knights because I don't have a PS5 yet. Dead Island is a bit outdated imo, Alien Isolation is kind of a masterpiece, but I already played the sh*t out of it, House of Ashes was on sale not too long ago and I bought it, it was pretty good, but I have no intention to replay it.”

Another possible issue comes in the form of fps, with the PS5 still being stuck on just 30fps for most games. “Alien Isolation is fantastic but the 30fps framerate limit kills it for me,” explained one gamer, before adding, “Playing it on PC is the way to go.” Judging by how annoyed RDR II players are after seeing a PS5 hack to get the game running on 60fps, it goes without saying that fps is a huge sticking point for gamers.

Whatever the reasons, PS Plus Extra is dying a slow, painful death in front of Sony’s eyes, yet it doesn’t seem overly bothered about the issue. Either it’s got an ace up its sleeve, or it's just an inevitable decline factored in.