Earlier today, Sony revealed the free PS Plus games for January 2021. PS Plus subscribers are being treated with three games (if they own a PS5): Shadow of the Tomb Raider, GreedFall, and the PS5 version of Maneater. The first is the third entry in the Tomb Raider reboot series, the second is a classic BioWare-esque RPG developed by Spiders, and Maneater is a game about a shark seeking revenge with a complete upgrade system. As far as free PS Plus games for a month go, it's a rather impressie line-up.
However, what happens now and again is someone recently purchasing a game that has moved to a subscription service like PS Plus or Game Pass shortly after. It is typically an "oh well" situation, but Sony has reportedly sent out automatic refunds for those who have recently purchase one of these games, namely Maneater.
Redditor BraeWhyIt seems to be the first to report this. After starting up their PS5 today, the Redditor received the following message: "As a subscriber of playstation plus, we will refund the purchase price of this product to your playstation store wallet as this is a playstation plus monthly game. This will not affect your ability to play the game as we have not removed the game from your library." In other words, despite the game not releasing on PS Plus for a few short days, the Redditor can continue to play it now while receiving a refund.
Some have echoed that they received this message as well, although their refunds haven't processed yet. This may depend on many factors such as the bank someone uses and the number of refunds Sony is issuing, as well as the New Year's holiday. Aside from Maneater, there doesn't seem to be any reports that GreedFall or Shadow of the Tomb Raider have been refunded. This, too, could be for a variety of reasons, one of which is how Maneater is much newer and more likely to have been purchased within some time constraint than the other two, necessarily.
Sony hasn't stated how big of a time frame it's looking at offering refunds for Maneater, but BraeWhyIt states they bought the game last month. This means that many of those who have purchased the game in the last month or so should check their PS5 and see if they've also received the above message.
PS Plus subscribers get a few select free games every month.
Source: Reddit