Acclaimed PS5 roguelike shooter Saros gets a substantial free trial, but there's a catch

Saros, the latest game from the arcade-loving game creators at Housemarque, is getting a new two-and-half hour trial for anyone interested in trying it.

Housemarque announced the trial on Monday on its official X account. Though the trial is technically free, it's paradoxically only available to PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers. Premium is the highest of three tiers of PlayStation's monthly subscription service, costing £15/$16 per month, nearly double that of the base - Essential - tier.

While one of the advertised benefits of Premium is the ability to access free trials, Saros reportedly has not been selling well, with some analysts concerned the game may struggle to break even. The game, which is the follow-up to Returnal, is in a similar roguelike shooter genre, but its sales momentum at launch has been reportedly slower than the 2021 title.

Both games are critically acclaimed, but the larger PS5 installed base of 2026 makes Saros' performance a little more disappointing. That said, the price tag of £70/$70 and more expensive PS5 consoles have likely played a part. It's also worth keeping in mind that players are becoming far more selective about what they spend money on with worsening economic conditions globally. Given that, it's a little surprising Sony wouldn't want to make the trial available to more players in the hopes some of them would buy the full version.

Housemarque, for its part, isn't particularly concerned about the slow sales start, explaining in a recent interview that Returnal was something of a late bloomer itself.

"This is just the start of the discussion and conversation with the gaming community," the developer said. "If you have played Saros, you know that there are a lot of things that we can do and tweak and add. We hope that we can keep on doing that for a while."

In the Saros Eurogamer review, Rick Lane called it "a tremendous action experience [whose] ambitious narrative gets lost in the fireworks".