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The PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are finally returning a month after Sony was forced to shut down its online network due to an external intrusion. Although all of the features are not completely restored, online play is fully operational. Yesterday, Sony also announced more details of their “Welcome Back” program that should have gone live a week ago.
Once the online Store returns, all existing users will gain access to the “Welcome Back” gift. Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media, detailed the program in a recent update on the official PlayStation blog. Gamers who did not sign up for PSN Plus accounts before the blackout will receive 30 days of free membership. Existing Plus account holders will get an additional 60 days of subscription paid for by Sony.
Anyone with a PSN account before online services went down back in April will be able to download two PS3 games to keep forever. However, not all games are eligible for this offer. Your choices are Dead Nation, inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD and Wipeout HD + Fury. If you are a PSP owner, you can pick two games from the handheld versions of LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force and Killzone Liberation.
For those not satisfied with complimentary PSN Plus membership and free downloadable games, Sony announced more gifts to woo fans back. They will open up “On Us”– a subsection in the movie department of the online store. This program will give customers access to free movie rentals over one weekend, but representatives did not detail any specific titles. PlayStation Home users will get 100 free virtual items ranging from clothes and objects to personal spaces. If you already were a Music Unlimited Premium Trial subscriber, you will receive 30 days of free premium content. Those with upgraded Premium/Basic memberships will have an additional 30 days of time, free of charge.
These are the confirmed gifts for North America. European and Latin American fans should check their respective PlayStation blogs for more details. It is great to see the PlayStation Network back online even if they are a bit late. It is especially awesome that the “Welcome Back” program is more than just free PSN Plus access. Despite the limited selection of games, offering a pick of two free titles is a nice way for Sony to apologize. But is it enough? Let us know in the comments below!
Links: Sony PlayStation
No its not enough. Id rather have expansion packs for games I already own or Store credit. Its bad enough Sony network was down for 30 days they didnt tell us our info was compromised when it happened and WORSE yet they are back online but I cant get my stupid password reset and its been over 28 hours. F Sony I cant wait till I have saved up enough to buy an x-box
i think the welcome back pack is very lame, it is one game i beat years ago, one game i’ve never heard of, and 3 games i had no interest in. i don’t really care about the playstation plus, if i did i would have bought it. i don’t really care about the free movie weekend either, i have 1000 channels on my tv, i use my ps3 for gaming. i feel this is a very minimal attempt to “woo” their loyal customers, it feels like a attempt to try to hook people on to their billable features. this package does nothing for the wide array of customer, i only see this satisfiying a very narrow range of people. i have a playstation to kill my bordom, but don’t rely on it, for those people who do some how rely on it, i say sony doesn’t care about you, they are attempting to turn misfortune in to a gimmick. $5 dollars in psn store credit would be more satisfying the their lame welcome back pack
lol… I can’t believe people are pissed that Sony is giving stuff away for taking away something that they gave you for free to begin with. Go ahead and get an Xbox and enjoy paying the $10 a month just to play online. If you have to save up to by and Xbox, the money you spend on games, membership fees, expansion packs, and other add ons, you will have tons of money in an Xbox system. Suck it up and enjoy your free online experiment.
Chris its $5 a month for x-box live which is a nominal fee for a network you can trust. Sony has lost my trust. They are trying to upsell me on playstation plus and give me games i dont give two craps about. My anger comes from the fact that now that they are back up we cant even get our passwords reset. Before they turned the network on did they not forsee millions trying to reset their password jamming up ISPs. Its now 36 hours and I still have yet to receive the email on resetting my password. Why cant i use my old password just to get online shouldnt that be my choice if i want to use a password that is potentially compromised. Why didnt they just send out mass emails prior to turning on the network to all their customers knowing they were going to ask themto reset their password anyways. Another F**k up for Sony which shows they dont care about their users.
What kind of welcome back package is this? Sucky games, a plus program to get us to buy their content at a “reduced” fee, a day or two of free, lame B movies. Sony, where are the store credits? Where are the free dlbs? Where are the free games I want to play? I bought a ps3 for it’s superior graphics and hardware. I love Xbox, but when I heard the ps3 wasn’t charging for online play I jumped on the bandwagon. Now I am regretting I turned my back on Xbox. Microsoft may charge $60 dollars a year, but I don’t have to worry about my credit card numbers ending up on the black market!! Or worse, someone stealing my identity!!! For those that are saying that Sony doesn’t owe us anything, that Sony is offering these items even though we don’t pay to play online. Come on, Sony sat around for a week or two without telling us there was a security breach. That week or so I could have put an identity alert with the bank and credit unions. Sony didn’t know if the bastards got our personal information. They should have told us about the intrusion from the start so we could take the proper precautions. But NO, Sony decides to try and keep the incident on the Down low. Hoping they could fix it without looking like a bunch of incompetent hacks. I say shame on you Sony, you risked the well-being of over 77 million faithful users. You’ll feel good once you fall behind the Wii in sales. You should have remembered who got you where you are, the customers.
its enough. its more than enough. we dont pay for ps network so we cant complain. having free online gaming is good enough for me. they are going to give us ps+ for a month which gives you free games,expansions,themes and more. they are giving a choice of 2 free games and 100s of items on pshome. if you payed for all that stuff it would cost atleast £100+ ………stop complaining little geek kids. its not the end of the world that you couldnt play online for a month. big F***ing deal. if you are so pissed off go by a shitty xbox pay £45 a year for online, pay for demo’s and it will brake every couple months. we playstation users have it good stop complaining
Go get your teeth fixed you limey wanker. I dont pay for the air i breath but that doesnt mean I cant complain about it when some sh** head is smoking in my personal space. Sony is using a smoke screen of free CRAP to cover their mistakes and mishadling of the situation. They are giving away this crap because it is just that, crap! They made a mistake and lost the trust of millions of their users. Why give me something I dont want or use. A pen would be more useful to me then what they are offering. Like i said before give me an expansion pack and Im happy.
Tim you may be able to paly again but millions of us are still waiting for a password reset. I finally got mine after 48 hours and guess what the Site is f ing down again because the tool they are using to change your password can be hacked. To put it in terms Tim would understand Bollocks on you Sony for having your heard way up your ARSE!!