Sony announced significant changes to PlayStation Plus earlier this week. Starting this June, PlayStation Plus will consist of 3 tiers – Essential, Extra, and Premium, each offering different benefits. The Essential tier will be the same as PS Plus in its current form, while Extra and Premium categories will give access to several PS4 and PS5 games. The Premium tier also comes with other benefits, including a collection of classic PS1, PS2, and PSP titles and the ability to stream PS3 games.
The PlayStation Plus lineup for April 2022 includes Hood: Outlaws & Legends, Slay the Spire, and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated. The lineup received a mixed response from subscribers, as many users did not find the selection all that exciting. Fans seemed pleased with the free games offered with PS Plus for January and March, but February was similarly lackluster. These games were supposed to be available on April 5, but subscribers in some regions can start playing one PlayStation Plus game ahead of schedule.
It looks like EU PlayStation Plus members have received early access to SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated. The store pages for Hood and Slay the Spire show their respective prices, and they can only be purchased at the moment. However, SpongeBob SquarePants will give players with an EU PlayStation Plus account the option to add the remastered game to their library. They can then download the game as they normally would, with the title taking around 15.88 GB of space.
This is only applicable to users with an EU account at the time of this writing, as the NA and Asia store pages do not show an option to add SpongeBob SquarePants to the library. Strangely, only one game is affected as players do not have access to Hood or Slay the Spire, and this seems like the result of a store or backend error. The PlayStation Plus lineup for April will be available for free in a couple of days, but many fans will probably be pleased to get the game early.
PlayStation Plus subscribers should note that Persona 5 will leave the PS Plus Collection on May 11. Persona 5 is widely considered to be of the best JRPGs of all time, and interested players should add it to their library before it leaves. The PS Plus Collection still offers excellent value to PS5 owners, though many have hoped that Sony will consider adding more games to the lineup since it has remained the same for over a year. Regardless, PS Plus fans in the EU can start chopping their way through Bikini Bottom today.