Persona 5 Is First PS Plus Collection Game To Be Removed From Service
Sony has revealed that the first game to leave the PlayStation Plus Collection will be Persona 5. The PS5 launched with the PlayStation Plus Collection, which gave PlayStation Plus subscribers access to a selection of classic PS4 games at launch, including God of War, Bloodborne, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
The PlayStation Plus Collection has a few RPGs, including Fallout 4 and FF15, but many fans likely consider Persona 5 to be among the best of the bunch. This is the JRPG that helped propel the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series to mainstream attention, as it's often regarded as being one of the best games of its generation. The only issue fans had with Persona 5 coming to the PlayStation Plus Collection is that the updated version of the game, Persona 5 Royal, was already available, and it added a ton of content to the game.
It seems that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts won't be staying on the PlayStation Plus Collection forever. The PlayStation Plus games for April 2022 have been revealed on the official PlayStation Blog and they include SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated (PS4), Hood: Outlaws & Legends (PS4/PS5) and Slay The Spire (PS4). The PlayStation Blog also mentioned that Persona 5 is leaving the PlayStation Plus Collection on May 11, 2022.
This is the first indication that games on the PlayStation Plus Collection have a limited shelf life. It's likely that the remaining third-party games will also leave the service in the future. This means that games like Monster Hunter World, FF15, Fallout 4, Mortal Kombat X, Battlefield 1, Batman Arkham Knight, and Resident Evil 7 will likely also depart at some point. Capcom might decide to cut Resident Evil 7 in time for the Resident Evil current-gen upgrades later this year.
It's possible that the PlayStation Plus Collection as a whole is being phased out, in favor of the new system that is on the way. Sony is merging PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now and adding a premium tier that contains retro games. There's a chance that the PlayStation Plus Collection games will be rolled into the PlayStation Plus Extra tier in the future. It's a shame that any of the games are leaving the PlayStation Plus Collection, as it gave people who purchased a PS5 access to a collection of great titles off the bat, but it seems it was just a temporary offer to incentivize people to buy the new system and offer something that looks like a PlayStation version of Xbox Game Pass.
Persona 5 will leave the PlayStation Plus Collection on May 11, 2022.
Source: PlayStation Blog