PS Plus Removes Four Games in January 2026 as Sony Reshapes Subscription Strategy

Recently, Sony has made an announcement with significant transformations to its PlayStation Plus subscription service: four of the previously existing titles would be de-accessed to both Extra and Premium plans beginning January 20, 2026. 

Sony reported an EPS of $0.39, which included an EPS surprise of $0.121. This indicates that the actual EPS was higher than what investors were expecting. 

Quarterly revenue increased by 18% year-over-year to ¥4,409.6 billion ($29 billion), surpassing the analyst consensus estimate of $23.78 billion 

Rapid Background of PS Plus Tiers

PlayStation Plus keeps its Essential tier users on a fast, recurrent model every month which offers them a good collection of free titles each month, including the 5 free downloads available in December that include Black Myth, a title that has already sold 25 million copies according to Niko Partners data. 

The Extra and Premium subscriptions by comparison have a larger selection: the past month has also included ten new titles, such as Assassin’s Mirage. 

Nonetheless, when Essential bans are preserved forever, cancellation of titles in Extra/Premium levels leads to forever loss of access by the subscribers.

The Games Saying Goodbye

• Monopoly + (PS4): This is based on the vintage board game, played online, although some of the locations in Europe such as Mayfair are missing.
• SD Gundam Battle Alliance (PS4/PS5): is a mech-based game produced by Bandai Namco, which is known to have elaborate boss fights.
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS4): An indie rhythm-based game that was created by Simogo and was inspired by pop; the title itself has about eight hours of content.
• Like a dragon gaiden (PS4/PS5): In this brief action-adventure game, which is a spin-off of Sega’s immensely popular Like A Dragon series, you take on the role of Kazuma Kiryu, a renowned yakuza who faked his own death and gave up his name in order to protect his family.

What Lies Ahead

The January 2026 PlayStation Plus game series will soon be formally announced by Sony, which would be the biggest change to the service in years.

As of March 2025, 22% of Sony’s PlayStation Plus users were enrolled in the priciest Premium tier, up from 19% of all users the year before.

Consequently, publishers anticipate shorter content cycles focusing on new blockbuster launches, which in return drives the users to watch more content in one sitting or buy titles altogether. 

These intentional change requests would help support the competitiveness in an environment that is becoming dominated by competing subscription platforms including Game Pass.