Sony’s PlayStation Plus service turned 10 on Monday, June 29, and the company is offering up some freebies to celebrate.
Sony said on Monday that it will offer a commemorative PlayStation 4 theme and free online multiplayer on July 4 and 5 to celebrate the anniversary. Sony also announced that NBA 2K 20, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration, and Erica will be available for free between July 7 and August 3.
Each month, PlayStation Plus subscribers get two free games with their membership, but Sony will bump that to three next month as part of its 10-year celebration. PlayStation Plus subscribers can currently get Call of Duty: WWII and Star Wars Battlefront II for June at no charge.
Sony launched PlayStation Plus on June 29, 2010 to deliver online multiplayer and other perks to PlayStation 3 users. Since then, it has attracted more than 41.5 million users who pay $60 per year, $25 for three months, or $10 a month for access to free monthly games, 100GB of cloud storage, and online multiplayer. The service also comes with Share Play, which allows people to let friends remotely watch or play a game from the host’s library.
According to Sony, more than 1,000 games have been made available for free since PlayStation Plus started the monthly offers in June 2012. The 2007 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Sonic Forces, Shadow of the Colossus, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Destiny 2 are the five most-redeemed monthly freebies since the service’s launch.
Still, PlayStation Plus is significantly smaller than Microsoft’s Xbox Live subscription service. To compare, Microsoft said in April that it now has 90 million monthly active Xbox Live users and more than 10 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers who pay $10 a month for access to more than 100 Xbox and PC games, which is comparable to Sony’s PlayStation Now subscription.
Sony hasn’t discussed its future plans for PlayStation Plus, but it’s expected to live on in some form when the PlayStation 5 launches this holiday season as it did when the PlayStation 4 came out. In a PlayStation 5 event earlier this month, Sony promoted online play in GTA Online when it revealed Grand Theft Auto 5 would come to the new console. A title card accompanying the announcement read “PS Plus required to play,” suggesting the service will be required for online multiplayer on the PS5.
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