PlayStation Gives Away Two Free Games for New Play At Home Initiative

PlayStation 4 owners can now pick up two games for free thanks to Sony’s new “Play At Home” initiative started in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Sony announced the initiative this week and revealed that Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey would be free from April 15th to May 5th for anyone who owns a PlayStation 4 regardless of whether they have a PlayStation Plus subscription or not. The second part of this Play At Home initiative will see $10 million going from Sony to its independent development partners to support indie game studios which may not have the resources that bigger companies do to deal with the shutdowns and delays which have affected many organizations.

Considering how Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is actually comprised of four different games from the Uncharted franchise, the first giveaway from the Play At Home initiative technically consists of four different games to keep players busy. The games from Naughty Dog include Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception which send players on adventures as Nathan Drake while Journey offers a much different explorative experience from Thatgamecompany.

The games will be free for most regions, but for those in Germany and China, you’ll see a slightly different offering. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is replaced by Knack 2 in those areas, but the package still includes Journey. Sony reminded people of the slower download speeds in many regions and said that the games might take a bit longer to download than usual, but once they’re downloaded, they’re yours to keep.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection was free for PlayStation Plus subscribers early in the year in case that game being given away for free seems familiar to some PlayStation 4 owners. Unlike the other free giveaway though, you don’t have to worry about this collection going away if your PlayStation Plus subscription lapses if you download it now.

It’s unclear from the announcement if new games will be offered for free after May 5th or what those games might be, but it seems likely given that these free games have a cutoff day to be downloaded.

Sony also said it’ll have more information available soon on the $10 million that’s being given to independent developers.