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Gaming PlayStation Plus Free Games Revealed Ahead Of Release, But There’s A Catch By Erik Kain ,
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about TV shows, movies, video games, entertainment & culture. Follow Author Aug 25, 2026, 02:43pm EDT --:-- / --:-- This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . Post updated 08/25/26. See updates below.
September is almost here and with it another slate of free PS Plus games for Sony fans. We’ve had some quality lineups across 2026, so hopefully that trend continues and September’s PS Plus Essential Games are keepers.
You have a week left to snag August’s PS Plus Essential games: Dying Light 2: Stay Human , Signalis (a PS4 title) and the hit indie game, Big Walk (with a 93 Metacritic score, making it one of the best-reviewed games of the year when it comes to PS Plus freebies). Despite this being a pretty good month, plenty of PS Plus subscribers were unhappy with the offerings, but that’s true of pretty much every month.
August has been a good month for PS Plus subscribers. On August 18, Vampire Survivors, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 , and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams came to PS Plus Extra . On August 25, PS Plus Extra subscribers get Hell is Us, Umamusume Pretty Derby: Party Dash, Two Point Museum, Metro Exodus, and, as luck would have it, Dying Light 2.
For the purposes of this post, we’ll be focusing on September’s three Essential games including leaks, rumors, reveal time, release date and more.
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Sony typically reveals the upcoming PS Plus Essential lineup on the last Wednesday of the month and releases the new games on the first Tuesday of the coming month. That’s not always the case, but it’s a good rule of thumb.
This means that September's PS Plus Essential games get announced August 26 and go live September 1, with Extra and Premium’s first wave revealed September 9 and dropping on September 15.
This means there’s only a six-day gap between the reveal and the drop, because September 1 is itself the first Tuesday of the month. It also means August's Dying Light 2, Big Walk , and Signalis — all very much worth downloading if you’re a PS Plus subscriber — expire August 31. Don’t sleep on these games!
Update: The September lineup of PS Plus games just leaked online, a day before the official announcement. The leak comes by way off billbil-kun at Dealabs , who has accurately leaked countless PS Plus lineups prior to their official reveal. The games for September reportedly include Sniper Elite: Resistance , Chained Echoes , and Wobbly Life . None of these were in my own predictions, unfortunately. Billbil-kun has an exceptionally strong track record with PlayStation Plus leaks, accurately revealing monthly games ahead of Sony’s official announcements for years. While no leak should be treated as official confirmation, his PS Plus reports have historically been highly reliable. We’ll know for sure when Sony reveals the lineup officially.
The games will release on Tuesday, September 1. Be sure to download August’s free PS Plus Essential lineup before it’s too late!
So far there have been no reliable leaks for September's PS Plus lineup. If one arrives, it'll almost certainly come from billbil-kun at Dealabs , who has been the most accurate PS Plus leaker going for years now and who typically posts the month's headline title anywhere from one to seven days before Sony's reveal. That gives us a narrow window: the official announcement is expected Wednesday, August 26, though Sony jumped a day early last month so it’s always possible the reveal could come sooner.
We can also look at what’s coming out to see if we can glean any clues, but here again we come up mostly dry. No video games appear to be releasing on September 1, but Trine 6 comes out on September 17 and I’ve had Trine 5 on my wishlist for sometime now. That’s something!
If we look back at previous years, past September releases are also very little help.
Looking back at the PS Plus September lineup over the last seven years, it’s hard to really come up with any coherent theme. Here’s what we’ve gotten since 2019:
2019 — Batman: Arkham Knight, Darksiders III
2020 — PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Street Fighter V
2021 — Overcooked! All You Can Eat, Predator: Hunting Grounds, Hitman 2
2022 — Granblue Fantasy: Versus, Need For Speed Heat, Toem
2023 — Saints Row (2022), Black Desert Traveler Edition, Generation Zero
2024 — Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, MLB The Show 24, Little Nightmares II
2025 — Psychonauts 2, Stardew Valley, Viewfinder
Basically, there’s no telling what September will bring. Sometimes we get horror games (a little early for Halloween) and the occasional sports title. Some indie stuff. A couple of racing games. It’s really an anything goes!
A raft of PS Plus Extra games (and a couple Premium) titles will leave the service in mid-September, including: Persona 5 Tactica, Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun Hong Kong: Extended Edition, Shadowrun Dragonfall: Director's Cut, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII, Toukiden 2, Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back, EA Sports Madden NFL 26 , and — on Premium — Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue and Toy Story 3.
It’s unlikely that any of these will come to Essential the same month they leave Extra or Premium, but we could get something to fill the void — a JRPG perhaps.
Spider-Man 2 — The headliner for September riding on the coattails of the massive success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s a popular game and there’s no better time than striking while the iron is hot. Besides, the new Wolverine game comes out in September, so this would be a pleasant pairing.
Trine 5 — The indie title of the list. The little guy, but a great fun co-op fantasy game you can play with friends. Might be too soon to the next game’s release, however. But I want an indie title in my predictions ...
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