PlayStation Plus is a fantastic service with hundreds of 'free' games on offer, but one of the worst parts is when something that was on your backlog gets cut, leaving you with a conundrum.
We've all been in moments when we've had to decide whether to shift around our backlog or put what we're currently playing on pause to jump on a new game, all because it's leaving the subscription service at the end of the month.
It's often a worthwhile choice if the game makes its way into your favorites list, but it can disrupt your rhythm, leaving many to simply neglect the opportunity and hope that it returns to the service at some point in the future.
In a shocking turn of events, however, some gamers have discovered that there's on fan-favorite title that you can now play for free via PlayStation Plus, despite the fact that it left the service around a year ago.
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As shared by GAMINGbible, a post from u/Puzzleheaded-Sir8673 on the r/PlayStationPlus subreddit revealed that you're now seemingly able to play through Life is Strange 2 thanks to a glitch that makes it part of the subscription library.
It was once available through the PS Plus Extra tier, but was removed in March 2025, much to the frustration of people who were working their way through the episodes, or had planned on playing the critically acclaimed experience.
Yet it seems like you can catch up on what you missed thanks to the new glitch, although don't expect it to be working for too much longer now that it's been exposed.
"I played Life is Strange 2 when it was on PS Plus and downloaded the episode DLCs as well. After the game got removed from PS Plus, I uninstalled it," the post explains.
"But in my library it says Life is Strange Episode 1 is free, and it says I already purchased all the episode DLCs. The whole game and episodes even work after re-downloading the free version and all of the DLC episodes work."
It appears as if this glitch stems from the fact that the game's first episode is free to everyone, no matter if you've got PS Plus or not, but the system still registers the rest of the game as 'purchased' thanks to it being downloaded from Plus.
Additionally, the game appears to still operate across five separate licenses for each corresponding episode, and they could act differently to a traditionally single-license game and thus open up an exploit like this through PS Plus.
"It's not a bug or a glitch. It's how episodic content works on PSN," explains one commenter. "They can't fix it, so they haven't. It's been this way since early in the PS4 gen. Same thing happened with Hitman 1 and then later Hitman 2 when they came to Plus."
Multiple people in the comments have confirmed that the glitch works — although with the major caveat that you must have already downloaded Life is Strange 2 when it was previously on PS Plus, as that's what 'tricks' your PS5 into thinking that you already own it.
The popularity of this particular glitch could prompt Sony into action though, so make sure you take advantage of it now if you never got around to finishing the game, as this could be your last opportunity.