The Real Reason Sony Is Giving Refunds For Maneater

If you purchased Maneater just before the ShaRkPG was announced as one of January's free PlayStation Plus games, you may be in luck. Sony is apparently offering automatic full refunds to PlayStation Plus subscribers who recently bought Tripwire Interactive's king of the ocean game because of Maneater's upcoming addition as a free title. At least, this was the case for one Reddit user, so it may be worth it to check your PlayStation Store account if the same scenario applies to you.

Reddit user BraeWhyit revealed that they bought Maneater last month, and when they turned on their PlayStation 5 this week, a message regarding the game popped up. "As a subscriber of PlayStation Plus, we will refund the purchase price of this product to your playstation store wallet as this is a playstation plus monthly game," the message read. "This will not affect your ability to play the game as we have not removed the game from your library."

BrawWhyit then elaborated that because they already owned the original license for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of Maneater, they do get to keep the game even if they end their PlayStation Plus subscription. Typically, when users terminate their PlayStation Plus subscriptions, they lose access to all free content downloaded during the subscription. In other words, BraeWhyit will get to keep Maneater for free and forever, which is a rare case.

Sony seems to be feeling very generous, because many other users replied in the thread that they also received the same message. In the case of BillyDip, they bought Maneater at the time of its launch back in May, so the purchase wasn't even recent. BraeWhyit pointed out in a reply that this could "revolutionize" the PlayStation Plus service if Sony continues to do this with other titles. It would prevent purchase hesitation or buyer's remorse out of fear that the title in question does become free at some point.

In Maneater, players take on the role of a female bull shark who is seeking revenge against a fisherman who gave her a deformity and killed her mother. In her quest to exact revenge, the shark must evolve and survive by killing other people. The game launched on PC, PS4, and Xbox One in May, with a Nintendo Switch port coming in 2021. In November, Maneater became a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S title, complete with 4K 60 FPS upgrades.