Banned PS5 Game Now Available and Free With PlayStation Plus

July 31, 2026, 4:00pm

There is a new PS5 and PS4 PlayStation Plus game available for free for all PlayStation Plus subscribers at the Extra and Premium tiers, except for PS Plus Essential subscribers and those in Germany. And this is because the game in question is banned in Germany. Unfortunately, Sony has not provided a replacement for these subscribers, which means said subscribers in the European country are getting one less free PS Plus game than everyone else.

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The game in question is not banned in any other country, and its sequel is not banned in Germany, but since its launch in 2015 on PS4, and then on PS5 in 2022, PlayStation fans in Germany have not been able to buy Techland’s Dying Light due to its excessive violence. As a result, it is not included in the rest of the July 2026 Extra and Premium lineup for those in Germany.

Why Is It Banned?

At the time of its release, 11 years ago, German game regulators specifically took issue with the amount of violence in Dying Light, including its dismemberment, highly detailed gore, and the fact that it was against human-like characters. This was in 2015, though, when German regulators were stricter than they are now. If Dying Light were released in 2026, it would almost certainly be permitted into German markets, and we know this because when it got a sequel with the same content in 2022, Dying Light 2, that sequel was allowed in Germany.

Compared to most other European countries — if not all other European countries — Germany remains the strictest, particularly when the game involves Nazi content. However, they aren’t as strict as they used to be. There are far stricter countries in the present, such as Saudi Arabia. And of course, there are all the closed or semi-closed markets to consider as well, such as North Korea and China, respectively.

For those not in Germany, Dying Light is now available via PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium, though for how long, we do not know. Most games are added in 12-month or 24-month blocks, but not every game.

As for the game itself, Dying Light is a survival-horror open-world parkour game that was a new IP at the time from Techland, who, previously, was known for Call of Juarez and the Dead Island series. Upon release, it earned a 75 on Metacritic, which is a decent score but not a good score. Despite this, and despite being a brand-new IP, it sold well over 20 million copies, making it one of the most successful new IPs of the previous console generation. Right now, there is no word of a continuation of the series, but Techland did comment on the potential of a Dying Light 3 back in 2023. Meanwhile, Dying Light 2 just got a huge new update.