The free PlayStation Plus games for October 2019 were announced earlier, and they're two titles in The Last of Us Remastered and MLB The Show 19 that are timed perfectly for fans who might be interested in either property. The PlayStation Plus free games service is one of the major draws of Sony's online subscription platform, but has lagged behind in recent months when compared with its major competitor in the Xbox Game Pass service, as the latter has consistently put out major titles and relevant new releases.
The PlayStation Plus service, on the other hand, is most notable this summer for a controversy that occurred when it put up Horizon Chase Turbo and Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 as its free games for July and was immediately met with backlash over the perceived lack of a "big" game. Many were also upset because Pro Evolution Soccer is a series with a niche following, limiting how many people were going to enjoy it from the outset. In an unprecedented move for the company, Sony would retract Pro Evolution Soccer and include Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain instead, satisfying fans. Since then, Sony has been careful to balance its free games each month with a major, broadly appealing draw.
For the free PlayStation Plus game for October, that draw is surely The Last of Us Remastered, which was announced as one of October's two free titles on the PlayStation Blog earlier. It's no surprise that Sony has chosen to include The Last of Us Remastered now, immediately following the announcement of The Last of Us 2's release date during the latest PlayStation 4 State of Play presentation. The Last of Us Remastered is also important because it included Left Behind, a DLC story that explored Ellie's past relationship with Riley and helps pad out the character's history a little bit better than the main game does before she takes on the lead role of The Last of Us 2.
The other free PlayStation Plus game for October is MLB The Show 19, which comes just in time for the real-life equivalent to enter its postseason play. That will likely be the time the most casual fans are interested in playing a baseball video game if they didn't already own one, which makes MLB The Show 19 an appealing inclusion in the lineup and one that could help benefit MLB The Show 20's sales and reach when it presumably releases sometime next year during early spring, although no release date has been confirmed as of yet.
The free PlayStation Plus games for October 2019 are two deftly chosen additions to the service that should make the majority of fans pretty happy. It's still nothing like what Xbox Game Pass offers its subscribers, but if Sony can merely maintain interest in the service for the coming months before the next generation of consoles arrive, that'll be enough to keep fans engaged and ready to see what the PlayStation 5 brings as its online service features.
Source: PlayStation Blog