PlayStation Plus April 2023: DOOM, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and more

A new month brings a newly updated roster for Sony’s game subscription service. The PlayStation Game Catalog — a steadily rotating library of games, not to be confused with the monthly PlayStation Plus titles are only available to grab for a few weeks — is getting several new games in April 2023, as shared via PlayStation Blog. 

Somewhat amusingly, this roster even includes several titles from the Microsoft-owned Bethesda Softworks. Naturally, all of the games being added are available for purchase on PlayStation consoles, so it’s not unreasonable for a deal to have been worked out, but it’s still worth noting. This is hardly the first time such a thing has happened, with Bethesda Game Studios’ The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Mojang Studios’ Minecraft Dungeons also coming to some form of PlayStation Plus in months past. 

Here’s the full list of games being added to the service on April 18, 2023, which are playable by any PS4 or PS5 users subscribed to PlayStation Plus Extra or PlayStation Plus Premium: 

• Bassmaster Fishing - PS4 and PS5

• DOOM Eternal - PS4 and PS5

• The Evil Within - PS4

• Kena: Bridge of Spirits - PS4 and PS5

• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom - PS4 and PS5

• Paradise Killer - PS4 and PS5

• Riders Republic - PS4 and PS5

• Sackboy: A Big Adventure - PS4 and PS5

• Slay the Spire - PS4

• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood - PS4

• Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - PS4

All of the games above are playable on PS5 through backward compatibility, but the ones with dedicated PS5 versions have special features and modes that take advantage of the increased hardware in Sony’s latest gaming machine.

There’s also a number of PlayStation Plus Premium games being added in the form of PlayStation Classics. These games are only playable by anyone subscribed to PlayStation Plus Premium, the third and highest tier of Sony’s subscription offering. Here are the new PlayStation Classics being added:

• Dishonored: Definitive Edition - PS4

• DOOM - PS4

• DOOM II - PS4

• DOOM 64 - PS4

• DOOM 3 - PS4

PlayStation Classics are somewhat confusingly defined, referring to PS1, PS2, or PS3 games, regardless of whether or not they are being emulated, streamed, or even remastered for PS4. The exception is for any Ubisoft games added to the service, as remasters of titles by Ubisoft are bundled into the PlayStation Plus Extra tier. 

Finally, a handful of games are leaving the service on May 15, 2023. This is a fairly standard part of any subscription service, but there’s one game leaving that may raise some eyebrows. Here’s the games leaving soon: 

• Marvel’s Spider-Man - PS4

• NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 - PS4

• Resident Evil - PS1

Marvel’s Spider-Man is a PlayStation console exclusive, making it more than a bit strange that the game will be removed from Sony’s subscription service. It’s possible that some kind of licensing issue has arisen, or this may mean that Sony intends to remove first-party games from its Game Catalog after a certain amount of time. This is the first time this has happened with the revamped PlayStation Plus, so we’ll be paying attention moving forward to see if it’s an exception, or the rule. 

Regardless, if you somehow haven’t played Marvel’s Spider-Man yet, prioritize doing so. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the only first-party PS5 exclusive currently slated to launch in 2023, with a rumored release window of September.