On PS Plus’s “Free Play” and Xbox Game Pass, games bought at full price sometimes end up added to the free lineup later, stirring complicated feelings among the people who paid for them. On 5ch’s “Hardware/Industry (Geha)” board, a thread asked users to share their experiences — and feelings — about having a game they’d just bought go free via Free Play or Game Pass. Reactions ranged widely, from “I’m never buying new on release day again” and “I’ve stopped buying that publisher’s games” to “I’m happy more people get to play it” and “never really thought about it,” highlighting both frustration over sudden price drops and the differing ways gamers make peace with buying software in the subscription era.
What people said
1AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:54
Give me your honest feelings about this
5AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:55
Made me think, "I'm never buying games on release day again"
6AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:55
Honestly pisses me off
That's why I stopped buying new
7AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:56
With Free Play I can at least force myself to accept "well, if I cancel the subscription I can't play it anymore"…
but when they handed out Spider-Man left and right, that one honestly stung
8AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:56
I just think, "hope it gets more people talking about it"
9AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:56
Makes me sad thinking, "why did I even pay full price…"
10AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:56
Wasn't right after I bought it, so I don't feel anything special about it
11AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:57
At first I was like, "is this really what the publisher does!?" and got super pissed — now I just don't expect anything from Sony anymore
12AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:57
Didn't really feel anything about it
Only cheapskates at heart get worked up over this
13AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:58
Honestly, a price crashing overnight does way more damage than that
14AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:58
Popular titles almost never end up there anyway, so who cares
15AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:58
Never had a game go Free Play right after I bought it
Feels more like, "great, more people playing it"
Did feel a bit of regret once when I bought something that turned out to already be registered via Free Play though
16AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:59
Even without Free Play, it's no different from a budget re-release or getting cheap used copies later
Buying new on release day is paying for freshness
17AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:59
Happens pretty often, but for a game I actually like I just see it as a chance to spread the word
18AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:59
Lately I just watch free let's-play videos instead
More fun than actually playing
19AnonymousNov 1, 2026 20:59
Bought Dejiboku on sale, then it went Free Play the very next week — had to laugh
Don't put stuff that's about to go Free Play on sale
20AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:00
Feels like a betrayal… never buying a PS game again!
Though a few days later, the anger and resolve are apparently already forgotten
21AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:01
If it's been months since I bought it, I don't feel much
But when Kagerou — which had just been on sale right before — showed up, I thought, "Koei Tecmo, are you kidding me"
22AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:01
It's only available for a month anyway
If Free Play titles were permanent keeps, PSN would probably feel a lot more lively
29AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:03
Re: #22
You can keep playing Free Play titles the whole time your Plus subscription is active
23AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:01
I've stopped stockpiling unplayed games on PS
24AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:01
Happened to me with a few titles, but by the time they go Free Play I'm already playing something else, so it doesn't bother me much
The people who skip new releases and buy on sale instead are probably the ones who'll complain about timing
25AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:02
Made me think, "guess it was only good enough to give away for free"
And then, "guess I have no eye for games if I bought that"
26AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:02
Bought Metaphor and it went into Game Pass right after — made me decide I'm done buying Atlus games
28AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:03
Let's try waiting six months… Sale!
Let's wait another six months… Free Play!
30AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:03
Bought the physical copy → lucky, I get a digital copy too
Game has online play → lucky, more people join online
A game I like → more users means a livelier community
Nothing but upsides
31AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:04
You stop buying games that are likely to end up as Free Play, so it actually sharpens your eye for picking good ones
32AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:04
Let us buy the digital version of Free Play games outright
I want to be able to pull games I really like out of the Free Play rotation and just own them
33AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:04
I honestly don't feel much about Free Play
If it's a good game, it just makes it easier to recommend to others
Now if a game I bought at full price went 90% off within a month, I'd lose it lol
Though that'd never actually happen
34AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:05
I get 90% of these games for free without buying them, so whatever
35AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:05
I buy on release day so I don't feel anything about it
Just think, "oh, guess it's fairly popular"
36AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:06
Felt kind of disappointed, honestly, and after that I stopped buying that publisher's games at full price.
37AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:06
Even if you buy it on release day, there are probably more people who've already resold their copy by then
More like, "lucky, I get to play it again"
38AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:06
All the Square Enix and Kojima Hideo games ended up on Game Pass, so I stopped buying them
The current Xbox is the only console where you can play every Metal Gear and every Final Fantasy on one machine
39AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:06
I don't mind if it goes Free Play, but I'd like some kind of compensation for people who already bought it
41AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:07
Wish they'd set a rule like "only after about 3 years since release"
42AnonymousNov 1, 2026 21:07
Now I don't have to swap discs anymore
Lucky
Background and Key Points of This Topic
PS Plus’s “Free Play” is a system where several titles are added each month for members, differing from outright purchases in that you lose access if you cancel. Xbox Game Pass, on the other hand, folds new releases directly into its monthly subscription, and titles like Atlus’s “Metaphor,” along with works from Square Enix and Kojima Hideo, have repeatedly made headlines for joining Game Pass right after launch. The thread split over whether “having more users join is actually a good thing” and whether “buying new on release day still means anything” — the gap between those who feel cheated and those who are indifferent comes down to whether you buy software as an “experience” or as an “asset.” Note that some replies strayed into arguments unrelated to the original topic, so those have been excluded from this article.
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