PS Plus’s free games for May 2023 aren’t the most confidence-inspiring, but that’s to be expected given the service’s history this month…

Sony recently revealed the PS Plus free games for May 2023 (on the Essential tier). Well, they are discouraging, to say the least. From May 2, subscribers can claim Grid Legends, Chivalry 2 and Descenders. Not that these games are inherently bad. It’s just that none of them are really good choices for the service. However, it was already foreseeable that the games that will be available for free in May 2023 would not be the best.

The problem with these games is just how limited they all are: Grid Legends is a racing game developed by Codemasters, and while racing games have their audience, it’s not enough to take away a month of PS Plus.

Some racing games, such as Need for Speed, F1 or even Codemasters’ own Dirt, maintain a higher level of popularity and appeal. But Grid Legends is not at the same level. Chivalry 2, meanwhile, is a solid multiplayer game. It might not seem like such a bad addition in any other month, combined with other games. But its multiplayer elements don’t negate its medieval hack-and-slash approach. Both ratings are limiting. Finally, there’s Descenders – a cycling game. It’s actually deceptively fun. But along with the other PlayStation Plus games this month, none of them have the star power to “lead” the month. So overall, they’re underwhelming.

In fact, the PS Plus free games for May 2023 were always going to be underperformers. While it’s impossible to predict games from month to month, fans could rely on two historical patterns. One is the PlayStation Plus ‘big March’ pattern. That is, March games are usually among the best of the year. The other is the so-called “May curse”.

PS Plus free games in March are typically among the biggest every year. In recent years, for example, Bloodborne and Final Fantasy 7 Remake have been released this month. However, the March 2023 PS Plus free games have broken with tradition and have been pretty rough overall. April picked up, but perhaps some were hoping that meant the curse of May was broken. It did not; in fact, it was probably a sign that it was about to get worse.

Source: Polygon