Before buying Mafia: The Old Country or Horizon Forbidden West, check your PS Plus tier. Both are in Sony’s October 2026 Game Catalog announcement, alongside Mycopunk on its PS5 launch day. For an existing Extra subscriber, that can remove the need for a separate purchase. For someone on Essential, the useful question is how much an upgrade costs for the time they will actually play.
Our recommendation: check the included edition first, then compare the cost of access with the price of buying that edition. A long list of additions is a reason to check your wishlist, not automatically a reason to buy a year of subscription time.
PS Plus October 2026 games: what arrives when
Sony’s October Game Catalog announcement lists nine additions across the catalog and the higher tier. The rollout is split across several dates.
October 20 — Extra and Premium Game Catalog:
Already scheduled earlier: The Midnight Walk for PS5, October 14 in the US and UK, October 15 in Japan.
October 27 — Extra and Premium, with these dates specified for the US, UK and Japan:
- Poppy Playtime: Chapter 2 — PS5 and PS4.
- Tales of Arise – Beyond the Dawn Edition — PS5 and PS4.
- Monster Energy Supercross 25 – The Official Video Game — PS5.
October 20 — Premium additions: Dino Crisis 2 and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition, both listed for PS5 and PS4. Sony’s Latin American announcement places these in Deluxe in those markets.
Sony warns that lineups can differ by region. Treat the dates above as the announced schedule and check the signed-in Store for your account before paying. An October 27 entry is not a missing October 20 download.
Essential has a different October lineup
The October Monthly Games announcement names F1 25 and Hunt: Showdown 1896 for PS5, plus Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 for PS5 and PS4. The announced claim window is October 6 through November 2, subject to regional availability. These monthly games are included at every paid tier.
Mafia and Mycopunk belong to the separate Game Catalog, which requires Extra or a higher tier. An Essential membership alone does not unlock them.
The access rules matter as much as the names. Claimed Monthly Games remain playable with an active membership; Game Catalog access also depends on a title remaining in the service. Downloading a catalog game does not turn it into a standalone purchase. Sony covers catalog rotation in its PlayStation Plus FAQ.
That makes a difference if you are returning to Horizon after a long break. Before paying to continue a save, check whether the edition currently offered through your membership is the one you need. Do the same with Tales of Arise: Sony names the Beyond the Dawn Edition specifically. A price for a different edition is not a useful comparison.
Is Extra worth it for one game?
Start with the membership you already have.
Already on Extra or Premium: check whether the game is included for your account. If it is, playing through the catalog avoids an additional purchase today. Buying can still make sense if you want access beyond the subscription or if the edition you want differs from the included one.
Currently on Essential: open the upgrade screen before comparing prices. Sony charges an upgrade fee for the remaining subscription period, rather than simply selling you a separate month of Extra. If you have stacked membership time, the upgrade covers that remaining time too. The checkout amount is the number to compare with buying the game.
No active membership: compare a subscription covering your realistic playing time with the standalone price. A campaign you expect to finish this month and a game your group will revisit all winter call for different budgets.
Use this calculation:
Subscription cost for the time you expect to play, plus any required extras, versus the price of the same standalone edition.
For an existing Essential member, substitute the quoted upgrade fee for the subscription cost. Count only games you intend to play during that period. Adding the retail prices of nine games you will never launch produces an impressive number with little bearing on your spending.
Our buying preference is simple: use existing catalog access before making a duplicate purchase; consider a short subscription for a specific playing plan; compare a sale purchase if your schedule is uncertain or you expect repeated play. None of those choices requires paying for the highest tier just to reach Mafia, Horizon or Mycopunk.
Compare regional prices after checking access
Start in your own account’s Store. Confirm the game, edition, platform, membership tier and actual checkout price. Premium and Deluxe should not be treated as interchangeable names for every benefit, and a cheaper subscription in another market does not establish that its catalog matches yours.
For price research, our PS Plus regional comparison separates one-, three- and twelve-month plans and shows the date of the saved price snapshot. Compare the same duration. A twelve-month total divided by twelve describes the annual commitment; it is not the amount charged for a one-month plan.
PS Prices Hub also lets you compare regional Store prices while checking a game or subscription. Use the result as a comparison, then verify the offer on the account that will pay. The country of an existing PSN account cannot be changed, so viewing a cheaper storefront does not move your membership there. Payment availability and funding costs also affect what you can actually buy.
If you decide on a short subscription or an upgrade, check the next charge before confirming. Our guide to PS Plus auto-renewal explains where to find the payment date and how to stop the next renewal.
Use the PS Plus regional cost comparison to compare the same subscription tier and duration before choosing a store.