New Free PlayStation Plus Games Include Game Banned for Excessive Graphic Violence

July 20, 2026, 3:16pm

The free PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium games for July began their staggered rollout on July 15, and this rollout will complete on July 28. In total, there are nine free PS4 and PS5 games that PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium subscribers can look forward to. This is the case for most subscribers, at least. Some subscribers only have eight games this month, and that is because one of the games in the lineup has been banned and is not available in some parts of the world for its excessive and graphic violence.

Videos by ComicBook.com

When the conversations of banned and restricted games come up, specific countries often come to mind. And Germany is not one of these countries. That said, traditionally speaking, for decades Germany has had the strictest system for video games in Europe. In the last few years, these guidelines have been relaxed a bit, but it’s prevented many games with very violent content — in addition to Nazi content — from being released in the country. One casualty of this is 2015’s Dying Light. And if there is an example of restrictions becoming less strict recently, it’s the zombies series from Techland, because its equally violent sequel, released in 2022, was and is not banned. The first game is, though, and so it’s not included in the PS Plus lineup for July in Germany as a result. And unfortunately for PlayStation Plus subscribers in this part of the world, there is no replacement. Subscribers in Germany are just getting one game less than most of the rest of Europe and the United States.

Why Was Dying Light Banned?

As noted, German game regulators took umbrage with Dying Light’s excessive violence. More specifically, its dismemberment and highly detailed gore. Further, the violence is against human-like characters does not help.

As for the game itself, Dying Light is an open-world parkour zombie survival-horror game from Techland, who, up until that point, was best known for Dead Island and Call of Juarez. Now, it’s best known for the Dying Light series. To this end, when the first game launched in 2015, it did to Metacritic scores in the mid 70s, which are fine scores, but certainly not great. It sold extremely well regardless of this, though, selling over 20 million copies. This was more than any game the studio previously released and is more than any game the studio has released since.

This is not the first time this has happened. To this end, a banned PS5 game was included in the June PlayStation Plus lineup. However, it’s not common. When it’s a PS Plus Essential game, it’s usually replcaed, but when it is a PS Plus Extra or PS Plus Premium game, it is seldom replaced.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the video game conversations happening over on the ComicBook Forum.