Earlier this month, Sony revived last year’s Play At Home initiative, a program designed to provide free games to PlayStation players in the hopes of promoting social distancing. Next week, Sony will expand the initiative by offering a whole bunch of games.
Starting on March 25, you’ll be able to add the following PS4 games to your library:
- The Witness
- Abzû
- Subnautica
- Enter the Gungeon
- Rez Infinite
Sony will also make four VR games available:
- Astro Bot Rescue Mission
- Moss
- Thumper
- Paper Beast
You’ll be able to claim those nine games though April 22. A bit down the line, between April 19 and May 14, you’ll also be able to claim Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, which includes the terrific Frozen Wilds expansion on top of the main game (plus some bonus weapons, in-game resources, and tiny add-ons of that nature).
As with the “free” games included with PS Plus, once you claim a game and add it to your library, it’s yours to keep for good. The difference here is that you needn’t pay up a membership fee.
Play At Home is underwritten by simple logic: The easiest way to defeat covid-19 is for people to practice social distancing. Staying home is a more compelling prospect when you have a stacked backlog. Thus, free games. Last year, Sony put up Journey and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. According to The Washington Post, the latter was downloaded 10 million times. Earlier this month, Sony made the actually-pretty-good 2016 remake of Ratchet & Clank available. (That’s still up for grabs through March 31.)
This latest version of Play At Home will run through June. Last week, the White House directed states to open up vaccine eligibility for all adults no later than May 1, with the intent of returning the United States to some semblance of normalcy by July 4. The finish line’s in sight, folks, and that final kilometer will hopefully be an easier sprint with some free games.