PlayStation Plus just confirmed its April games will be available April 7, giving subscribers early access to Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, Lords of the Fallen and Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream. These additions arrive the same week the internet fills with corporate April Fools gags—proof that brands use both real releases and jokes to keep audiences engaged. One clear implication: subscription services increasingly turn momentary buzz into measurable retention.
Sony’s monthly roster means PlayStation Plus members (Essential, Extra and Premium tiers) can download or stream the titles at no extra charge starting April 7. The remastered Tomb Raider trilogy restores classic levels with upgraded visuals while offering a nostalgia toggle that simulates the original low‑poly look. Lords of the Fallen delivers grimdark, Souls‑adjacent combat across a demon-haunted landscape, and Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream mixes co-op raids with a single-player story mode.
That gaming news arrives amid a louder, weirder corporate April 1 than usual. The holiday is still dominated by tongue-in-cheek product drops—some clever, others bizarre. Fortnite ran a 24‑hour gag update that temporarily altered physics and added rideable llamas; Games Workshop posted a mock trailer for a Warhammer 40K musical that was surprisingly well produced; Traeger pitched “MEAT‑AI” grilling glasses that sound plausible enough to spark actual product ideas.
And then there are the headline-making real events that turned into joke fodder. On March 29 the official KitKat X account announced a theft of a large shipment between Italy and Poland, a genuine supply‑chain incident that several game publishers turned into April Fools riffs. Developers and official accounts—from indie studios to larger publishers—posted playful images and short gags referencing the pilfered bars, with everything from characters diving into chocolate piles to faux crime-scene spoofs.
Why the overlap between serious announcements and silly pranks? Because both function as attention drivers—one converts to subscriptions or sales, the other to social shares and earned media. (Sometimes those pranks actually become promotions.) Who doesn’t love a good, harmless gag?
Reaction has been mixed. Reddit threads are buzzing—some users called the Tomb Raider remasters a welcome nostalgia hit and praised the Lords of the Fallen pick for fans of punishing action RPGs—while social feeds lit up with clips of Fortnite’s temporary antics and corporate posts from brands like T‑Mobile, Baskin‑Robbins and Traeger. A few stunts crossed lines for some viewers, but many companies leaned into playful, noncontroversial ideas: novelty cologne, pocket steaks, even cat-hair‑adorned sweaters that double as adoption profiles.
What’s next: PlayStation Plus subscribers should see the April lineup live on April 7—check your console or the PlayStation app for downloads and region-specific availability. And if history is any guide, other publishers and consumer brands will keep rolling out limited-time gags over the next 48 hours—some fleeting, some smartly timed to funnel attention toward genuine releases and offers.