PlayStation is celebrating the romance of St. Valentine’s Day by offering free access to online multiplayer across all games and all consoles over the coming weekend.
Starting at a minute past midnight in your local time zone on February 12 and running through to a minute before midnight at the end of February 14, you’ll be able to play the online multiplayer modes of any of your PlayStation titles, on PS4 and on PS5, without having to pay for a PlayStation Plus subscription.
That means nearly 72 hours of free access to online multiplayer — or 97 hours if you have accounts in American Samoa and Kiribati — just as it used to be back in the days of the PlayStation 3.
This free weekend comes just two months after the last, which ran in early December.
Currently, however, online multiplayer would usually require a PlayStation Plus costing $59.99 (£49.99/€59.99) for a full year, with shorter but slightly pricier subscriptions also available starting at $9.99 (£6.99/€8.99) for a single month at a time — though discounts are regularly available through PlayStation and other retailers.
PS Plus isn’t just an online multiplayer subscription though, as it includes other benefits like as cloud storage, exclusive game and add-on discounts, and three free games each month for both PS4 and PS5 owners.
The current set of free games are UFC4 (PS4) and Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep (PS4), with Planet Coaster: Console Edition available for PS5 owners too. PS5 players also gain access to the PlayStation Plus Collection, a bundle of 20 PS4 games like Fallout 4, The Last of Us Remastered, and Ratchet & Clank, that are free to download and play at any time.
PlayStation is also reportedly looking into expanding the PS Plus service to add free cloud gaming in a new multi-tiered offering, though this has yet to surface.
You won’t be able to take advantage of any of this during this free play weekend, which only offers the online multiplayer benefit. However you will get to try out the online modes in any game you currently have.
That means you’ll be able to take part in online races in Gran Turismo Sport, F1 2021, Assetto Corsa Competizione, or any other PlayStation racing title, if you somehow haven’t already — and with your GT Sport online stats carrying over to GT7 on March 4, now’s your chance to get your ratings up.
The free online weekend runs from February 12 at 0001 until February 14 at 2359 in your local timezone.
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