While the tiers themselves are a little confusing at first glance, Sony's reveal and release pattern for PS Plus' Essential, Extra, and Premium Tiers are pretty clear. The reveal of each comes less than a week before their release, and players will get the Essential tier games at the start of the month and Extra and Premium at the end of it. This means fans can already claim the PS Plus free/Essential tier games for August 2022, which include Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Cross-Gen Deluxe Bundle, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Little Nightmares.
On August 16, Sony will release the PS Plus Extra and Premium games for August 2022, which currently come in at 12 total games. It should be noted that July's offering included a surprise game, not revealed until its inclusion, and it's possible that happens again. It would likely only be one game though. The problem here, though, is that was supplemental, and the releases for July in this department were solid on their own. The PS Plus Extra and Premium games, however, seem to be forgetting something.
PS Premium Games for August 2022 Have a Huge Hole Where Something Important Should Be
It should be noted that this selection of PS Plus games is solid. It includes three Yakuza games (0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2), Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Metro Exodus, all of which are big games fans can spend tons of time in. It's joined by the beloved multiplayer game Dead by Daylight and the cutesy Bugsnax, while Everspace is perhaps a smaller game some fans could dive into as well. The same goes for Trials of Mana, and there are a few minor, card/party games that join for a little extra oomph: Uno, Monopoly Madness, and Monopoly Plus. However, the longer someone looks at this list, the more obvious it is something is missing.
- Bugsnax
- Dead by Daylight
- Everspace
- Ghost Recon Wildlands
- Metro Exodus
- Monopoly Madness
- Monopoly Plus
- Trials of Mana (a modern remake of a 1995 game)
- UNO
- Yakuza 0
- Yakuza Kiwami
- Yakuza Kiwami 2
There are no PS1, PS2, PS3, or PSP games included on this list. Indeed, one way PS Plus Extra and Premium edge over the Xbox Game Pass model is the focus and category dedicated to classic games. And there are major titles like Dino Crisis that have been teased by Sony, but not yet added to the service. It didn't even need to be that specifically, but clearly ignoring one of its biggest appeals of the Premium service is not great. After all, this makes the Extra tier currently seem more appealing than Premium. It's not sure why Sony hasn't included at least a couple of classic games, but hopefully, this isn't a trend.
Sure, the PS Plus Extra tier, access to several big and popular AAA games, and more are all important factors to the service. But its classic games selection was hailed as one of its biggest defining features, and the nostalgia offered by it is huge for pulling in subscribers. For this month, however, there's no nostalgia factored in. Now, it could be there are surprise classic games added, but that can't be relied on and they shouldn't be hidden. PS Plus Premium was loud and proud about its classic catalog ahead of release, meaning every month should be as loud and proud too. Ignoring them, even for one month, is like ignoring the top billing of a movie cast. It just doesn't make sense.
PS Plus Premium will release new games on August 16.