It is no secret that one of the most exciting benefits of owning a PS5 is gaining access to the PS Plus Collection. For the uninitiated, the PS Plus Collection is a perk for PS5 players who are also subscribers to PS Plus. Apart from the usual benefits offered by PS Plus, the PS Plus Collection gives players access to a handful of games, such as Resident Evil 7, that they can download and play for free.
Unfortunately, the PS Plus Collection is only available for PS5 owners, and is inaccessible from a PS4. However, a glitch at the PlayStation Store recently allowed some players on the PS4 to download games such as Resident Evil 7 and others for free. It is worth noting that Sony has since been able to fix the glitch, but for those curious, here is how some players were able to download PS Plus Collection games on the PS4 for free.
How The PlayStation Store Glitch Worked
Several days ago, a Resetera user named nolifebr exposed a bug that allowed PS4 users to download games on the PS Plus Collection. Although the original thread came from a Brazillian user, there have been reports of other players who have successfully exploited the glitch from locations across Europe and North America.
According to nolifebr, the glitch allowed them to download Resident Evil 7 for free by heading into the game's demo page at the PS Store. Upon opening the demo, there is an option to buy the game, and when they picked the second version on the list, they were able to download it without having to pay for the game. The reason why this worked is that the user had an active subscription to PS Plus, which failed to identify that they were downloading the game from a PS4 and not a PS5. Due to this lapse, nolifebr was able to get the full version of Resident Evil 7 via the PS Plus Collection.
Apart from Resident Evil 7, several users have reported that they were also able to download free versions of other games such as Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition, Battlefield 1, and Monster Hunter World. At the moment, it remains unclear whether the glitch was present on all PS Plus Collection games. However, given that players were able to replicate this process with several PS Plus Collection titles, it is possible that the bug is present on most, if not all, titles in the collection.
Does the PS Store Glitch Still Work?
Given that the bug allowed players to acquire games that aren't supposed to be free, it is no surprise that Sony was quick to respond and put an end to the scheme. Several players attempted to replicate the process highlighted by others from ResetEra, only to find an error message. At the moment, Sony hasn't publicly acknowledged the bug, and it remains unclear what will happen to the games that were successfully downloaded at no cost, but Sony will likely revoke access to them.
It is also worth mentioning that players shouldn't attempt working the glitch now, given that it is highly likely that their accounts would be banned by Sony. Of course, it remains a mystery why Sony was unable to foresee this exploit. There is speculation that the reason why all this happened in the first place is due to the possibility of Sony also offering the PS Plus Collection to PS4 players. However, this remains highly unlikely given the sheer amount of players that would be able to download games in the caliber of Resident Evil 7 for free.
Resident Evil 7 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: ResetEra