Play at Home Reported as Success for Sony; Players Downloaded a Total of 60 Million Games

The Play at Home initiative has been a huge success for PlayStation, with a total of 60 million games added by gamers to their accounts.

The Play at Home initiative, which began last year, was designed to keep gamers in their home so they wouldn't be exposed during the raging pandemic. According to Jim Ryan, in the few months that the initiative has been running, gamers have picked up 60 million free copies of games. What's more, Play at Home could continue, depending on how the situation with COVID-19 develops.

First, in April 2020, players received titles like Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey. They were then given access to Horizon Zero Dawn, Ratchet & Clank and many other items, including VR games and various DLCs. It's all to make gamers' time at home more enjoyable without having to spend money. As the CEO of PlayStation says in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz:

"We did two waves. It [the pandemic - ed. note] struck us as everybody was struggling with the first lockdown, we thought this would be a nice thing to do. We were able to do it [Play at Home - ed. note] and we were very happy with the reaction. And then we got through Christmas and we started lockdown again, and everybody... it was a bit miserable. We thought it would be a nice thing to reprise. So we did it again, this time spread over a period of a number of months, and now actually 60 million games have been redeemed as part of that activity."

For some time now, due to the improving situation, Sony no longer gives away games, although in May players received additional content to more than a dozen titles for free. According to Ryan, nothing has been decided yet. Everything depends on how the COVID-19 situation will turn out. If a lockdown is needed again, it's very possible that Play at Home will also bring back free titles.