PlayStation recently confirmed January's PS Plus titles and many PlayStation fans were anticipating the addition of Persona 5 Strikers at the beginning of January, but gamers in some regions are receiving a different game entirely. Instead of getting Persona 5 Strikers this month, these PlayStation players are instead welcomed by the less popular How to Survive 2.
Persona fans that are subscribed to PlayStation Plus have mostly all received Persona 5 Strikers through the service's monthly free offering. Reddit user Orochisan17 recently shared their grievances with this month's offerings as instead of Persona 5 Strikers, they got How to Survive 2 by 505 Games. Most of the affected PlayStation Plus subscribers are seemingly in Saudi Arabia, with users in other areas of the Middle East such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman confirming that they have downloaded their free copy of Persona 5 Strikers.
The other free titles being offered through PlayStation Plus throughout January 2021 include Dirt 5 and Deep Rock Galactic. Subscribers in Saudi Arabia having issues with Persona 5 Strikers haven't confirmed that there are issues downloading Dirt 5 or Deep Rock Galactic, suggesting that these games remain unaffected by whatever issue has prevented it from joining the lineup. Gamers outside of Saudi Arabia are largely reporting success with downloading Persona 5 Strikers which means the large majority of PlayStation Plus subscribers are receiving the correct titles this month.
Because January began days ago, it's unlikely that impacted areas will receive the correct title as if it were a bug, it may have been fixed by now. According to one response to Orochisan17's post, Saudi Arabia has handled releases like Persona 5 Strikers similarly in the past, with Outlast previously announced as a PS Plus bonus and gamers in the area receiving something else instead. While How to Survive 2 replaced Persona 5 Strikers this time around, Goat Simulator apparently replaced Outlast in the past.
PlayStation Plus titles have been subject to change in areas such as Saudi Arabia, but most regions receive the free games without issue. One Reddit user from the area stated that although some PS Plus titles like Persona 5 Strikers never make it to the region, other free offerings like Knowledge is Power have been given away multiple times. PlayStation fans in other regions have yet to experience repeated freebies, while the Epic Games Store has dabbled in visiting the same game twice.
Because many PlayStation fans in the Middle East area have created PlayStation accounts based in other regions to avoid issues like this, only a small portion of subscribers are seeing How to Survive 2 instead of Persona 5 Strikers. 505 Games' How to Survive 2 remains an improvement on the original title in the series, but many PS Plus subscribers have been looking forward to Persona 5 Strikers being free and some may be disappointed by its replacement. It's currently unclear why Saudi Arabia doesn't approve of the addition of Persona 5 Strikers to the PS Plus lineup, but other examples of censorship were caused by contradictions with the teachings of Islam.
Persona 5 Strikers is available right now for PC, PS4, and Switch.
Source: Reddit