As PlayStation Plus continues to soar in 2026, fans are concerned about a potential price hike. For now, though, the course remains steady, and there are some new additions coming to the Game Catalog soon.

One of them originally billed itself as a “GTA rival,” which confused many potential fans. Maybe it’ll find a new lease on life on PlayStation Plus.

Is This PlayStation Plus Freebie A GTA 6 Rival?

It’s Out On PS+ Soon

It kind of came and went, but Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was released in late 2024, and is imminently being offered on PlayStation Plus as a Game Catalog value addition. Selling itself as a “social and lifestyle experience” built around cars, there’s a lot going on with Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, which is currently $49.99 on Steam.

Here’s a quote from Guillaume Guinet, Game Director at KT Racing, in a 2024 interview with Videogamer: “For me, we are the competitors of GTA 6, Forza, and The Crew. At first, we didn’t think we would make this game, but when we drew up the project, we thought it really could. I don’t have any fear of GTA 6 for now, as we’re not in the same window.”

In context, this quote kind of makes sense. GTA 6 was originally going to be released earlier, so technically they would have been out at the same time, and featured cars. But not everything panned out for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Certainly Had Ambitions

What Does It Rival Now?

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown doesn’t seem poised to compete with GTA 6 any longer. Right now, the game is sitting at “mostly negative” reviews on Steam, with many complaints centered around the in-game currency situation, which was changed since launch.

One user writes: “Leaving aside the fact that it’s always online, that you can’t play solo if you want, that you can’t pause races nor rewind (and that restarting takes about a full minute of random menus to go through), and that both the AI and in-game economy are setup to make this whole thing as un-fun as humanly possible, it’s just not good man. It doesn’t have the sauce.”

On the flipside, another found it enjoyable to play on a free weekend, without having to delve into some of the game’s underpinnings: “Love the large map and large number of customizable cars to drive around. I experienced major frame rate drops while test driving some vehicles after about 4 hours playing. I had to change some of my graphical settings down to “medium” to temporarily resolve the issue, but it happened again. Overall I really enjoyed my experience and have added it to the wishlist.”

As a PlayStation Plus user, you’ll have the opportunity to check out Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown for yourself soon enough as part of the subscription service. It beats having to shell out full price, even for racing fans.

Brand

Sony

Original Release Date

June 29, 2010

Original MSRP (USD)

$59.99 (Essential), $99.99 (Extra), $119.99 (Premium) – Per Year

App Store

PlayStation Store