Sony has pulled the cover off October’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games, and it’s a genuinely strong month. Starting Tuesday, October 6, members can claim three games: F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896, and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2. All three stay claimable until Monday, November 2.
The lineup was announced on September 30 by Adam Michel, Sony’s Senior Director of Content Acquisition and Operations, on the official PlayStation Blog. It’s a nicely balanced trio: licensed racing, a high-tension extraction shooter, and an unserious co-op blast.
Leading the pack is F1 25 (PS5), the official game of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship. Career mode returns alongside the revamped My Team 2.0, where you run your own F1 outfit — hiring drivers, spending on development, and choosing who races each weekend. The new F1 World mode lets friends form squads and race together against AI drivers, while the cinematic Braking Point story returns for its third chapter. For anyone who’s ever been curious about the sport’s official game, this is the cheapest way in: free with Plus.
Then there’s Hunt: Showdown 1896 (PS5), Crytek’s PvPvE extraction shooter and the month’s darkest pick. You step into monster-infested maps alone or with up to two teammates, track a boss, claim its bounty, and try to make it out alive — all while rival hunters are hunting the same prize. Losing a hunter means losing them permanently, gear and all, which gives every round real weight. It’s tense, rewarding, and built for squad play.
Rounding out the month is Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 (PS4, PS5), the series’ voxel-styled spin on giant-insect warfare. Assemble a four-soldier squad from more than 100 characters pulled from across the franchise, swapping between them mid-battle as aliens and robots tear through a blocky world. Four-player online co-op and two-player local split-screen make it the month’s pure-fun option — a good palette cleanser after the tension of Hunt.
One platform note: F1 25 and Hunt: Showdown 1896 are PS5-only. PS4 owners can only claim Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, which ships in both PS5 and PS4 versions.
And a reminder: today, October 5, is the last day to claim September’s Monthly Games before the October lineup replaces them. If you haven’t added them to your library yet, do it today — you don’t need to install them, just claim them.
Sony is also expected to announce the October Game Catalog additions for Extra and Premium members on October 14.
Sources: NME, KeenGamer, iPhone in Canada