Sony Withholds 3 July PS Plus Essential Games as No Reliable Leaks Emerge

Q: Could a blockbuster like Elden Ring ever land on PS Plus, or is it just an impossible fan dream?

A game like Elden Ring could reach PS Plus eventually, but on the Essential tier in the near term it looks unlikely rather than impossible. The main reason is commercial logic. Elden Ring remains one of the industry’s strongest-selling premium games, with more than 30 million copies sold by April 2025, a hugely successful Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, a 2025 spin-off, a Switch 2 edition due in 2026, and a film adaptation planned for 2028. That means Bandai Namco and FromSoftware still have strong incentives to keep selling it directly rather than give it away as a monthly Essential title. That said, blockbuster games do land on PlayStation Plus. Sony has already shown a willingness to add major titles across its subscription ecosystem, and PS Plus Extra and Premium in particular have carried big-name releases such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Star Wars Outlaws. Even Essential has had strong months, including Diablo IV in July 2025 and Monster Hunter Rise in March 2026. So the idea is not unrealistic in principle. The more plausible scenario is timing and tier. If Elden Ring appears, it is more likely to arrive later, after sales cool further, and more likely through the Extra or Premium Game Catalog than as an Essential monthly freebie. For July 2026 specifically, with no credible leaks and Elden Ring still widely viewed as a “wishful thinking” pick, fans should treat it as a long-shot hope, not an expectation.

3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jun 28

Sony has not revealed July 2026’s three PlayStation Plus Essential games, and no reliable leaks had surfaced as of June 28.
July 1 is the expected reveal date because Sony usually announces the next lineup on the last Wednesday before the first Tuesday release; the games are then expected to go live on July 7.
June’s three titles — Grounded: Fully Yoked Edition, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide — remain claimable for a little over a week.
PS Plus Essential costs $10.99 a month or $79.99 a year, while Sony’s higher Extra and Premium tiers reveal their added game catalogs later in the month.