New PlayStation 5 owners can redeem a free game before Oct. 20

Last week, Sony announced its Upgrader Program, which implied that new owners of a disc-based or digital-only PlayStation 5 could redeem a free game if they activated their console before Oct. 20. However, it appears that this promotion is limited to users who already own a PlayStation 4 but haven’t yet upgraded to a PlayStation 5. To note this, Sony has added an “Invitation Only” disclaimer to the support page for this promotion, but hasn’t provided any additional details.

The program is still available to anyone that has previously activated their PlayStation 4, and proceeds to activate their new PlayStation 5 as their primary console. Below is the list of games that can be redeemed from the PlayStation Store following activation, in addition to detailed instructions to redeem this offer.

• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered
• God of War: Ragnarök
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut
• Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Demon’s Souls
• The Last of Us: Part 1
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• Returnal
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
• Death Stranding: Director’s Cut

1. Purchase and activate your PlayStation 5. Head to the settings menu once you’ve purchased and set up your PlayStation 5. Once there, head to the “Users and Accounts” menu and select “Console Sharing and Offline Play”. In that menu, select Enable, which will activate this PlayStation 5 and designate it as your primary console.
2. Head to the PlayStation Store. Opening the PlayStation Store via your console will show you a banner that will direct you to the selection of games available to download.
3. Choose your game.

Currently, the PlayStation 5 is available from multiple retailers. One thing to keep in mind is that Amazon’s Big Deal Days (also known as October Prime Day) is right around the corner (Oct. 10-11). Will Sony’s console get another $50 discount, letting you get an even better deal before the Oct. 20 deadline arrives? We’ll have to wait and see.

Sony PlayStation 5 (disc edition)

• $450
• $500
• 11% off

Prices taken at time of publishing.

• $450 at GameStop
• $450 at Best Buy

Update (Oct. 4): Following publication of this article, Sony updated the terms for getting a “free” game. We’ve edited our article to reflect these changes.