PlayStation Plus Users Getting Batman: Arkham City & More Free

PS4 and PS3 owners are getting some pretty high-profile games as part of Sony’s PlayStation Plus rewards program. Earlier today the company revealed that users can expect Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Sony shared details about the free games users will get as part of their PlayStation Plus subscription in a post on its PlayStation Blog just moments ago, and of course it’s Batman: Arkham Asylum has users PS3 users excited.

Owners of Sony’s PS3 video game console are now able to download Batman: Arkham Asylum right now at no charge. Batman: Arkham Asylum was the first game in a series that’s changed how people think about super hero games. As Batman: Arkham Knight was originally scheduled to arrive on store shelves this fall or winter, PS3 PlayStation Plus users would have been able to experience the beginning and end of the beloved franchise. PS3 users can also get Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara and Rainbow Moon.

For PS4 PlayStation Plus owners this month will be a more muted affair. Pix the Cat is an arcade game that reminds some users of Ms. Pac Man. Dust: An Elysian Tail & Spelunky are also available for PS4 users too. Finally, PS4 owners can also look forward to a free version of DriveClub that gives them access to 11 of the games tracks and 10 cars to race on those tracks.

PlayStation Vita owners are just getting Pix the Cat and Rainbow Moon free of charge. All told, users who have a PlayStation Plus subscription are getting access to a decent array of titles during the month of October. That’s great for users who are looking for something to hold them over until newer, more exciting titles launch during the month of November on the PS4 and PS3.

Over the years Sony has boosted the profile of PlayStation Plus by offering free games that people actually want to play. Microsoft’s Xbox Live service started doing the same thing last year, but titles available through it haven’t always been to user’s liking. Xbox One owners get two free games a month and Microsoft has recently started hosting free Xbox Live Gold weekends that let users play entire titles free for one weekend only. Recently Microsoft let all Xbox Live Gold users play Forza Motorsport 5 absolutely free.

To be clear, Batman: Arkham Asylum and these other games are only free to users who have a PlayStation Plus account. Users who don’t have an account won’t be able to download these games for free. Instead, they’ll be stuck paying for them. Handing out free games that users wanted was very important on the PS3 where PlayStation Plus was free to all. On the PS4, users are required to sign up for PlayStation Plus account before they can play games with their friends online. In that way Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus are very similar.

Users who download these free PlayStation Plus games during the month of October will be able to play them for as long as they want and even keep their saved games. These games are only free in the sense that users get to play them if they have a PlayStation Plus subscription. Should their PlayStation Plus subscription disappear, the games will stop working.

PlayStation Plus PS4, PS Vita and PS3 users $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year. A PlayStation Plus subscription transfers between all of Sony’s consoles. As such, users don’t need to get a PlayStation Plus subscription for every device they own. With the exception of disappearing without PlayStation Plus, these games behave the same way other digital titles do. That means users can still earn trophies and play multiplayer with their friends.