Starting late next week, PlayStation owners will have a chance to grab a multitude of free indie games as a part of the platform’s continuing Play At Home initiative, and this round of complimentary games will end with Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition next month. The Play At Home program began last year as the global pandemic began to keep players increasingly at home. The two goals of Play At Home, according to the company, were to give PlayStation fans in lock down something to help pass the time and to build up some attention for smaller, independent game creators that might be struggling.
The initiative set about achieving these goals last April when PlayStation gave away Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey. This year, the Play At Home program reemerged just before spring, marking almost a year since its inception. Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan penned a message to fans looking over the past year and revealing that the program would have new offers for fans starting in March and running through June. Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank became available to download on March 1 and, at the time of this writing, the title is currently still available until the end of the month. The post ended with a promise to reveal new details about upcoming game giveaways in the future.
New details came in today’s PlayStation Blog which revealed that players will be able to download Abzû, Enter the Gungeon, Rez Infinite, Subnautica, The Witness, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Moss, Thumper, and Paper Beast beginning on March 25. The nine indie titles, four of which are VR experiences, will be free until April 22. The games being offered this month are largely well-received titles from independent creators which calls back to the Play At Home program’s initial goal to help indie developers. During the March 25 to April 22 window, PlayStation owners are also being given an opportunity to try out an extended free trial of Funimation. On April 19, just a few days before the offer for the nine indie titles ends, PlayStation fans will be able to pick up Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition for free; that offer remains available until May 14.
While PlayStation gamers are getting access to ten free titles in the next couple of weeks, Xbox Game Pass owners are not hurting for free upcoming games either. Recently, the Xbox team announced that Outriders, the shooter from People Can Fly, will be coming to the service when it releases on April 1. This was previously hinted by the official Game Pass Twitter account. News also dropped recently that EA Play would be bringing its extended library of games to Game Pass on PC.
After the plentiful Game Pass news, this announcement from PlayStation’s Play At Home initiative will hopefully give fans of Sony’s console something to look forward to. Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the platform’s leading titles and it is a good time to catch up since the game’s anticipated sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, is slated to release this year. The program will have more to reveal in the future as well, since the post did promise content through the month of June.
Source: PlayStation Blog