PS5 Exclusive Announced as First Free PlayStation Plus Day One Game of 2026

The first PlayStation Plus day one game of 2026 has been confirmed, and it is a PS5 console exclusive, currently without an exact release date, but slated to release sometime this year. As you may know, the main difference between PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass is that the latter comes with dozens and dozens of day-one games every year. However, Xbox Game Pass subscribers pay a premium of $30 a month for this. This PlayStation Plus free game will be available to all tiers. This includes PS Plus Essential, which can be had for $6.66 if you buy it in 12-month chunks or $9.99 if you buy it in monthly subscriptions.

Whether subscribed to PS Plus Essential, PS Plus Extra, or PS Plus Premium, all PlayStation Plus subscribers via the Monthly Games lineup at some point this year will be able to claim House House and Panic’s Big Walk. For those unfamiliar with this co-op multiplayer adventure game, it was announced back in 2023, but only for PC. It’s now been announced for PS5, and alongside this announcement, confirmed as a day one PlayStation Plus game.

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Big Walk is pitched as a game all about teamwork and talking. In it, you and your posse step into an open-world full of challenges, puzzles, and discoveries. Beyond this, it is unclear what exactly the objective is other than exploration, but perhaps the mystery is the main driving force.

While Big Walk may be new to many PS5 users, the same PlayStation fans may recognize the name House House, or at least the studio’s previous game, 2019’s Untitled Goose Game, a game that sold more than a million copies and picked up two nominations at The Game Awards. This was the studio’s second game, though. The Australian studio debuted in 2016 with the release of Push Me Pull You. Its first release earned a 75 on Metacritic, while its second an 81, so there is reason to expect Big Walk to land somewhere in the upper 70s, maybe even the low 80s.

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Right now, there is no word on how much Big Walk will cost when it releases, so it is unclear how much PS Plus subscribers will save. The studio’s previous games have been $15 and $20, so expect a price around this range, possibly a bit more, as this is the studio’s most ambitious game to date. To this end, a price point of $25 or $30 seems possible.

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