Sony has locked in October’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games, and it is one of the stronger lineups of the year. From Tuesday, October 6, subscribers can claim F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896, and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, free to keep as long as the subscription lasts. The games stay claimable until Monday, November 2.
The announcement came from Adam Michel, Sony’s Senior Director of Content Acquisition and Operations, on the official PlayStation Blog on September 30. If you have been sitting on September’s four Monthly Games, you have until Monday, October 5 to add them to your library before they are replaced.
The three games, and who each is for
| Game | Platform | Genre | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| F1 25 | PS5 | Licensed racing sim | Racing fans and newcomers who want a guided on-ramp |
| Hunt: Showdown 1896 | PS5 | PvPvE extraction shooter | Squad players who like high-tension, high-reward rounds |
| Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 | PS5, PS4 | Voxel co-op shooter | Anyone who wants pure, unserious fun with friends |
F1 25: the official Formula One game, minus the intimidation
F1 25 is the official game of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship, and it arrives at a good moment: the 2026 season narrative is still fresh, and this is the full package. Career mode and My Team 2.0 return for single-player drivers, and the new F1 World mode adds squad-based multiplayer where friends race together against AI drivers.
The honest appeal here is accessibility. Licensed racing sims can be forbidding, but F1 25 is the version of the sport you can hand to a friend who has never touched a racing wheel and still have a good evening. At zero marginal cost on Plus, it is the easiest yes of the three.
Hunt: Showdown 1896: the thinking person’s extraction shooter
Hunt: Showdown 1896 takes the extraction formula somewhere most competitors do not: a murky, monster-infested 1896 where you track down a boss, claim the bounty, and then survive the extraction while every other hunter on the map tries to take it from you. Play solo or with up to two teammates.
It is the most demanding game in the lineup and the most rewarding. Rounds are slow, quiet, and then suddenly not. If you have been curious about extraction shooters but did not want to pay full price to find out whether the genre is for you, this is your risk-free trial.
Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2: giant insects, zero pretension
The third game is the odd one out in the best way. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a voxel-style shooter where you build a four-soldier team from characters across the mainline games and spin-offs, then fight absurd waves of giant insects and robots. It supports four-player online co-op and two-player local split-screen.
EDF is proudly unpolished and completely sincere about it. It is the game you play when the other two feel like work. It is also the only game in the lineup that runs on PS4, which matters more than it sounds.
The PS4 catch, and how to claim
Two of the three games are PS5-only. PS4 owners can claim and play Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, but F1 25 and Hunt: Showdown 1896 require a PS5. You can still add the PS5 titles to your library from the web or app so they are waiting if you upgrade later, which is worth doing even if you do not own Sony’s current console yet.
Claiming takes seconds: open the PlayStation Store, find the Monthly Games section, and add each title to your library. Sony notes that the lineup can vary by region, so check the store on October 6 to confirm all three are live where you are.
Compared with the usual rhythm of one headline game and two fillers, October’s trio is unusually well balanced: a mainstream racer, a cult shooter, and a co-op party game. If your backlog is already groaning, October also has a packed release calendar, including Minecraft Dungeons II, which launched earlier this week. Claim the Plus games first, they cost you nothing and vanish on November 2.
Sources: PlayStation Blog (via Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sep 30, 2026), KeenGamer, Insider Gaming (Oct 1, 2026).
