September is closing in, which means that any day now Sony will reveal the free PS4 games PlayStation Plus subscribers will get for the first month of fall. And after August’s great offering — Fall Guys and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered — Sony has its work cut out if it wants to raise the bar again. Yet, there are quite a few big games releasing next month, including Marvel’s Avengers, which Sony has partnered with for exclusive content, so perhaps it would be shrewd to offer a more tame lineup of games in order not to distract players.
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As always, even the best fortune teller doesn’t know what free games PlayStation Plus will come packing next month. We could get the best month ever or the equivalent of frozen soup. Unfortunately, PlayStation Plus has a reputation of both knocking it out of the pack and falling flat on its face.
Below you will find three games that I think will be on the menu next month for PlayStation Plus subscribers. That said, it’s important to remember that these are mere predictions. In other words, they aren’t based on insider knowledge or rumors, but rather simple observations, patterns of the service, and knowledge of the industry. Chances are none of these games will be offered up next month, but that’s just how math works.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2
Reason: Just like this month with Fall Guys, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 releases right when September’s PlayStation Plus games will be made available. Not only is it one of the most notable releases of September, but the year and Sony could score big appreciation points by dishing out the money to Activision to provide it for free to all PlayStation Plus subscribers. Is it a pipe dream? Sure. However, it did just pull off a similar trick with Fall Guys, so it’s at least a possibility. The one thing working against its inclusion is the game doesn’t have microtransactions, so it doesn’t benefit by getting extra players through the door on a free download. This means Sony will need to splash some serious cash, and it may not want to do this right before the PS5’s console launch.
Description: “Play the fully-remastered Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater & Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 games in one epic collection, rebuilt from the ground up in incredible HD.”
River City Girls
Reason: The day September’s PlayStation Plus games release is the same day River City Girls celebrates its one-year anniversary. In other words, it will be the perfect time to get back in the industry’s mind share and bring in new players. It shouldn’t cost Sony an arm and leg like Tony Hawk, and it should please hardcore PlayStation fans. After all, it’s one of the most underrated games of 2019.
Description: “There’s trouble once again in River City, and this time only the girls can save the day! Using a variety of attacks, weapons, and items, these hot-blooded heroines are ready to teach the city’s lowlifes a lesson – either solo or in 2-player co-op! It’s an old-school rumble for a new generation!”
Watch Dogs 2
Reason: Watch Dogs Legion is out in October, so now seems like the perfect time to make Watch Dogs 2 free. You could make it free in October, but the game is a bit on the lengthier side so Ubisoft and Sony would be shrewd to give players plenty of enough time to play it. At this point, Watch Dogs 2 is a couple of years old, and it’s regularly discounted to $10 – $15. In other words, Ubisoft has likely sucked the majority of sales out of it, which means it shouldn’t cost Sony a great deal to get the French publisher on board. Meanwhile, from Ubisoft’s perspective, this is an easy way to get new players in the door and ready to buy Watch Dogs Legion.
Description: “Play as Marcus Holloway, a brilliant young hacker living in the birthplace of the tech revolution, the San Francisco Bay Area. Team up with Dedsec, a notorious group of hackers, to execute the biggest hack in history; take down ctOS 2.0, an invasive operating system being used by criminal masterminds to monitor and manipulate citizens on a massive scale.”
