Several high-profile PlayStation 4 exclusives - including this year's hit The Last of Us Part II - are now on sale has part of the PlayStation 4’s recent Essential Picks promotion. With the PS5 on the horizon for this holiday season, Sony is pulling all the stops to boost player enjoyment with its current console, even as it looks ahead to the next iteration of the iconic PlayStation brand.

Despite this impending shift toward a new console generation, the PlayStation 4 shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon. Sony continues to add new games to its PS4-based PlayStation Now subscription service, and PlayStation Worldwide head of marketing Eric Lempel has promised that the company will continue to support the current system well into the PS5’s lifespan. Meanwhile, several PS4 exclusives have already benefited from a massive discount in August, and it won’t be the last time that players get to save on titles ahead of the PS5’s launch in a few short months.

PlayStation has revealed the official list of games being offered on sale during its PlayStation Store Essential Picks promotion, with the first title mentioned being The Last Of Us Part II. Joining it are other top first-party exclusives like Marvel’s Spider-Man, God Of War, and Death Stranding, as well as third-party games like Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, Borderlands 3, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. All of these titles are now available at discounts of up to 50 percent off on the PlayStation Network’s online store from now until September 16th.


The PlayStation Essential Picks sale features several top-tier PlayStation games, but The Last Of Us Part II stands out as one of the final exclusives to come to the PS4 ahead of the PS5’s release sometime later this year. Developed by Crash Bandicoot and Uncharted creators Naughty Dog, The Last Of Us 2 picks up where the critically acclaimed first game left off, putting players in the role of post-apocalyptic survivor Ellie as she seeks revenge against the backdrop of a world consumed by a deadly fungus pandemic. Unfortunately, The Last Of Us Part II fell victim to a hateful review bombing campaign when it was released back in June, leading to it ending up as one of the more divisive exclusives to come out of the PS4 library despite its overall improvements to the 2010 original’s gameplay.

Still, The Last Of Us Part II remains a highly successful PS4 exclusive in the face of such negativity and is an ideal front runner for the PlayStation Network’s Essential Picks sales promotion due to it still being fresh in players’ minds. Those interested in trying the game out will now be able to save on The Last Of Us Part II and countless other PlayStation 4 games for the next couple of weeks, as the Essential Picks event lasts from today until Wednesday, September 16th.