At this rate, the priciest PS Plus subscription tier is a tough sell if you’re not into cloud gaming
PlayStation Plus recently branched out into three subscription tiers — Essential, Extra, and Premium — and after the first month, the middle option feels like the best value. As someone who treasures retro games, especially the ability to easily play them on modern hardware, I thought I’d be drawn to Premium above all. But the initial wave of PS Plus Premium classics was sparse, and so far, the rollout is as incremental as folks had feared.
For July, Sony announced two new classic catalog additions — No Heroes Allowed! and LocoRoco Midnight Carnival — and that’s it for the month. Just two PSP games. Never mind the dozens upon dozens of great potential PS1 games that should still be within reach.
Curiously, Dino Crisis, Ridge Racer 2, and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny were briefly mentioned for Italy before Sony struck them from the list. A sign of things to come, I hope.
Here we go again with another slow retro rollout
If my expectations weren’t in check before, they are now. It’s early, and things could change for the better, but right now, it seems like most of the value for Premium is tied to the streaming-only PS3 classics and cloud gaming in general. Unfortunately for players like me who never got into the PlayStation Now service, that’s not a great deal — but it could be so much more enticing if the PS1, PS2, and PSP library did more heavy lifting.
For all of the backlash, I’ve slowly but surely come around on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack thanks to the N64, Sega Genesis, and DLC inclusions. I hope PS Plus Premium can step it up too; otherwise, I’ll swap to the Extra tier when my sub runs out.
As more games join the service, I’ll update this list — including notes about any PS1 classics with trophies, or games that are exclusively playable with PS Plus Premium.
Classics included with PS Plus Premium
PS1 classics
- Ape Escape ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
- Disney•Pixar Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! ($5.99 standalone)
- Hot Shots Golf ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
- I.Q Intelligent Qube ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
- Jumping Flash! ($9.99 standalone)
- Mr. Driller (PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee ($4.99 standalone)
- Resident Evil Director’s Cut (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Syphon Filter ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
- Syphon Filter 2 (coming September 20)
- Tekken 2 (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Wild Arms ($9.99 standalone) (*trophies*)
- Worms Armageddon ($9.99 standalone)
- Worms World Party ($4.99 standalone)
PS2 classics
- Ape Escape 2 ($9.99 standalone)
- Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits ($14.99 standalone)
- Dark Cloud ($14.99 standalone)
- Dark Cloud 2 ($14.99 standalone)
- FantaVision ($9.99 standalone)
- Hot Shots Tennis ($9.99 standalone)
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy ($14.99 standalone)
- Jak II ($14.99 standalone)
- Jak 3 ($14.99 standalone)
- Jak X: Combat Racing ($14.99 standalone)
- Kinetica ($9.99 standalone)
- Okage: Shadow King ($9.99 standalone)
- Primal ($9.99 standalone)
- Red Faction ($14.99 standalone)
- Red Faction II ($14.99 standalone)
- Rise of the Kasai ($14.99 standalone)
- Rogue Galaxy ($14.99 standalone)
- Siren ($9.99 standalone)
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunter ($9.99 standalone)
- Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter ($9.99 standalone)
- Star Wars: Racer Revenge ($9.99 standalone)
- The Mark of Kri ($14.99 standalone)
- War of the Monsters ($9.99 standalone)
- Wild Arms 3 ($14.99 standalone)
PSP classics
- Echochrome ($9.99 standalone)
- Echoshift ($9.99 standalone)
- Kingdom of Paradise (coming September 20)
- LocoRoco Midnight Carnival ($9.99 standalone)
- No Heroes Allowed! ($9.99 standalone)
- Super Stardust Portable (exclusive to PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Toy Story 3 (coming September 20)
It’s worth noting that some beloved games are included in the separate Remasters list on PlayStation Plus Premium. Notable examples include Patapon, Patapon 2, LocoRoco, LocoRoco 2, Toukiden: Kiwami, and Gravity Rush. So while it’s a lot of various newer remasters, there are gems that fit the “classic” vibe of the PSP and Vita era.
As for PS3 games, again, they’re streaming only on PS4 and PS5. There’s way too many for me to list out and link — sorry! But Tokyo Jungle and PixelJunk Monsters sure do rule.