UPDATE: Due to high traffic on PlayStation Store, you may encounter error messages or issues. We advise you to check back a little later and try again.
Note: In order to download two games at no cost, you must redeem them from the “Welcome Back” category. The individual titles are still available for purchase outside of the “Welcome Back Program”
If at any point you can’t find the ‘Welcome Back Free Game 1 or 2’ products, the list of available titles or a game you’ve selected, go to your XMB>PlayStation Network>Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotions to complete the process.
We’re so excited to welcome you back to PlayStation Network. With the PlayStation Store back online, we’ve been getting all caught up this week, having launched an abundance of amazing content for download on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable devices across games, movies, themes and DLC. Today, we’re excited to launch the Welcome Back program to thank you for your loyalty, and below, we’ve got what you need in order to get access to the included content. So, here’s a list of questions about the program. If you don’t see your question below, mention it in the comments and we’ll do our best to provide an answer. Thanks again for your patience and understanding as we restored the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services – your support has meant a lot to us and is greatly appreciated.
Q: What’s in the Welcome Back Program?
A: To start, all PSN members who had signed up before the outage (April 20, 2011) will be able to select two games for the PS3 system and two games for the PSP system.
For PS3 owners, go to the ‘Welcome Back’ section in the PlayStation Store, and select 2 titles from the following list:
- Dead Nation
- inFAMOUS
- LittleBigPlanet
- Super Stardust HD
- Wipeout HD + Fury
For PSP owners, go to the ‘Welcome Back’ section of PlayStation Store on your PSP system and select 2 titles from the following list:
- LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
- ModNation Racers
- Pursuit Force
- Killzone Liberation
Select your first game from “Game 1”, then return to the Welcome Back page and go to “Game 2” to select your second game out of the remaining choices available. This goes for both PS3 and PSP.
In addition, we’re giving access to our premium subscription service, PlayStation Plus, which includes games, huge discounts, exciting exclusives and added features like online storage and automatic downloads, to all PSN members for 30 days at no charge, requiring no long term commitment. As with the games above, go to the PlayStation Store and under the ‘Welcome Back’ section, select ‘PlayStation Plus: 30 Days Free’, and you’ll be given access to all of the benefits of PlayStation Plus. Note that this will not auto-renew and simply expires 30 days after activation.
Current Plus subscribers receive an extra 60 days added to their existing subscription at no charge. For current Plus subscribers, no action is needed as the 60 days are automatically added to your subscription.
PlayStation Network users will also get 100 virtual items in PlayStation Home as a show of appreciation for your patience while Home was inaccessible. Additional content is coming soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.
A selection of “On Us” movie rentals are currently available to PlayStation Network customers this weekend only, where Video Service is available.
Finally, current Music Unlimited Premium subscription members will receive an additional 30 days of premium subscription plus days lost due to the outage.
Q: When will I have access to the Welcome Back Program?
A: The content offered as part of the Welcome Back Program is available for download today and will be available through July 3.
Q: I have both PS3 and PSP. Does this mean I will get 4 games all together?
A: Yes, as long as you were a PSN member before April 20, 2011, you’ll be able to receive up to 4 games based on the titles listed above; 2 on each platform.
Q: Are there any limitations to the PS3 and PSP games we are receiving as part of the Welcome Back Program?
A: These games are yours to keep.
Q: How long do I have to get into the PlayStation Store and receive my content for Welcome Back?
A: Access to the Welcome Back content will be expiring on July 3. Once this date has passed, the Welcome Back section in the PlayStation Store will be removed.
Q: When does the 30 days of my PlayStation Plus access expire?
A: Your PlayStation Plus 30-day access will expire 30 days from the date you activated it in PlayStation Store.
Q: When will (insert game here) be published?
A: Look forward to posts over the coming days that will show what content will be available at that point, or coming soon. We’re planning frequent store publishes offering lots of new content for everyone to enjoy.
Q: I’m getting 30 days of access to PlayStation Plus; can you refresh my memory on what I get with this service?
A: From the time you activate your 30 days of PlayStation Plus, you’ll be able to download games and game related content, purchase select store items at a discount, and have access to the exclusive features of Plus. You’ll also be able to get early access to any Plus exclusive Demos and priority Beta invitations that might be scheduled during your 30 days.
Q: Do I get to keep the games in PlayStation Plus forever?
A: Content that is free in PlayStation Plus will not be available after your PlayStation Plus time has expired. However, if you decide to join PlayStation Plus, you’ll have access to all of the content you downloaded during your 30 day access for as long as you are a subscriber.
Q: Do I get to keep any games or content I purchased with the PlayStation Plus discount?
A: Yes. Any content you purchase at a discount is yours to keep, regardless of your subscription status.
Q: Aside from the games and discounts; does PlayStation Plus offer anything else?
A: Yes! PlayStation Plus includes the Online Storage for Game Saves feature, allowing you to backup treasured game saves or access them from another PS3 system as long as you are a subscriber. In addition, you get the Automatic Download feature, which automatically updates your 10 most recently played games while the system is in stand-by mode so you don’t have to wait for updates before playing your games.
Q: What content will be in PlayStation Plus when I activate my 30 days?
A: PlayStation Plus content and discounts are regularly updated throughout the month. For up-to-date information on content within PlayStation Plus, please visit the Plus homepage.
Q: Where can I find the Welcome Back content in Home?
A: The 100 virtual items can be found in the kiosk in Home’s Central Plaza along with two personal spaces – Dragon’s Lair and the Mansion Garage. A new game – Ooblag’s Alien Casino – will be released soon (June 2011). This game will be free-to-play. As an added bonus, players that access the Ooblag Alien Casino space will be rewarded an active item version of the Ooblag game that can be played in your personal space(s).
Q: How do I access the content in the Welcome Back Program?
A: Follow the steps below to access the content in the Welcome Back Program:
1. Log on to PlayStation®Store
2. Click on the “Welcome Back” tab in the upper left menu
3. Select “Welcome Back Free PS3™ Game 1”
4. Within the category, click on the “Welcome Back Free PS3™ Game 1” product and “Get Now”
5. Select your free PS3™ game*, and “Download”*
6. Repeat steps 3-5 with “Welcome Back Free PS3™ Game 2”
7. Go to the XMB™ to play your free games.
Q: I clicked on one of the Welcome Back Free PS3/PSP Game 1/2 selections, clicked “Get Now”, but no games showed up. Now that option is no longer selectable in the Store. Where is my game?
A: This is an issue we’re working on resolving, however for the time being, you can still get to that content by going to the XMB and under the PlayStation Network column, go to Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotion. You should be able to access the content in the option you selected here.
Q: Why am I getting errors saying I can’t access the Store?
A: Due to the surge of people going to the Store, you may experience some blocks in accessing certain areas of the store. Give it another try, or wait for a small period of time to avoid the rush.
Remember, if you didn’t see your question answered above, drop us a line below and we’ll do our best to answer it. Welcome Back!
Read the top of the blog post guys. It’s been updated with how to retrieve your games if you got errors.
Here’s a more detailed explaination though:
To those having problems with Welcome Back. Best suggestion is to wait at least a day.
The reason for the errors is that millions of people are trying to redeem the same content as you.
The “Servers” that allow you to download these things are flooded with so many people causing errors.
Just wait a bit and you’ll get your stuff.
You can still get your stuff now but you’ll have to fight with the error codes until it works.
To those that had their welcome back pages “dissapear”:
Go to the XMB and under the PlayStation Network column, go to Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotions to download the games after having selected “Get Now” from the PS Store.
For PlayStation Plus:
Account Management>Transactions Management>Service List>PlayStation Plus to activate.
These instructions are only if you got an error while redeeming the free games/plus through the store and had the pages disappear.
I’ve used my Media Go to try and download my 2 free games for my PSP (ModNation Racers and Little Big Planet) but when I used my free games (1 & 2) , it went to the list of the 4 games and I had selected the ones that I wanted then it went to the download but told me that I needed to download the Free Game package. I clicked ok, then clicked back, I clicked on the Free Game Icon at the top of the list but nothing happened so I went back into the the game that I wanted get and waited about a minute or 2 and it took me to another download page, this time with Free Game instead of the picture of the game that I wanted. I clicked download and it started loading for the download but then said error, so I went to my downloads list but the games are not there, I go back into the store to see if I could try to get my games from the list but th are not available anymore. I’m not sure if there was something I did wrong but I would like to know if I did. Any help with this problem would be great, I just want to get my free games.
I cant sign into my ps3 account nor cani go on PS.com to change my password(even though i know my password and it worked for my PSP) FIX THIS SONY!!!!
You should really keep up the store for at least 2 days. IM NOT TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO, Im just saying cuz the store is really laggy.
Sony…. IM having some issues with the welcome back program… because i did everything like getting the free PS3 game voucher… then when i tried to download something… i can’t anymore because of the errors so i just lost my 2 free ps3 games….. can you please help me…. ^_^
i picked the games but there not in my cart and ive been a member for about 2 years and i cant download them
THANKSSSS alottt sony, seems that after all the errors i went through and clicking the same things over 100 times i was able to get my free games and yesss as others have said, fallow the directions from page one in the replies.
“If at any point you can’t find the ‘Welcome Back Free Game 1 or 2’ products, the list of available titles or a game you’ve selected, go to your XMB>PlayStation Network>Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotions to complete the process.”
WHAT ABOUT ME?
I tried this, recieved the error message AGAIN, it locked up my ps3, I restarted it, tried again, and it wouldn’t let me select it from the services list. It says something like “Available – 0″….. like it downloaded it already, BUT IT HASN’T.
This is getting ridiculous, I’ve posted 10+ times, BEGGING for an answer to my problem, and I just get people bombarding me with the same solution THAT DIDN’T WORK.
OK I finally got threw and for all you who are having problems with errors go back to post # 16 and follow the instructions and if you keep getting errors keep hitting x then o then x then o then x then o then x and so forth and so on, you will eventually get your games. thanks, “beardsplitter”.
i just tried to get two free games but when i left the game 1 section IT CLOSED ON ME AND NOW I CAN ONLY GET ONE GAME BECAUSE I ACCIDENTALLY LEFT THE FIRST ONE
agree^^^^^ 1342
@Klokateer1986 ok, Available -0 that means that it thinks that you have already made a selection. have you checked in the Download List?
THIS IS BULL I THOUGHT I DOWNLOADED INFAMOUS BUT WHEN I LEFT AND CHECKED MY DOWNLOADS IT WASNT THERE NOW I CANT EVEN GET A NEW GAME
@death_by_wabbit
Every time I do, I get an error message, or my PS3 freezes, so I don’t know… I hope so, or else I’m screwed.
plz help i am havin errors in the psn store and homes plz!!!!
Why can’t I get any of the items on PSN Home? They all say ERROR
i pressed click now in the ps+ and i didnt get anything and the slot disappeared wtf it just said this contents unavailable right now…really sony MAKE SURE SOMETHING WORKS BEFORE YOU REALEASE IT
@Klokateer1986 yeah, its gonna do that just keep backing out of the error & try again.
@SCUMMIE1974 Thanks for the advise, followed the steps and found and redeemed my games. They’re currently DLing now. Thanks again for the help.
This question has been asked but I haven’t found an answer yet. What about those real loyal customer who already own all if not most of those games?
it is such a joke the free movies is limited to 3 choices hitch, switch, and underworld evolution and over 2 years old none of these are block busters
with sony’s huge library why not at least one of each genre or at least 12 movies to at least offer something to everyone the excuse we can’t cater to everyone’s tastes how is that not possible sony has thousands of movies and they even released some NEW movies out for rental from their own library (not free)
the game selection is weak
sony has alot of first party games they can offer like killzone 3 or an rpg at least or a FPS
ERROR ERROR ERROR and guess.. ERROR
Yep, read back and saw that you gotta go through some additional steps to get them and my DL is happening as we speak. Not only free but able to play off of the hard drive, such a nice perk.
OK here’s what worked for me:
if you get the error in the store & the game selection is no longer available, log out of the store & go into account management>transaction management>services list>SCEA Promotions you can select the games from there.
if you cannot select your game form there then go to go into account management>transaction management>DOWNLOAD LIST to see if your previous selections are there.
you will most likely get errors every step of the way, after all every player in the world is trying to do the same thing you are, just keep closing the error message & try again. it will eventually work.
have fun!
I will re-post this every once in a while
4 hours, I finally got Both Killzone Liberation & Mod Nation.. too Bad there are more people on PS3.. that seems like i’ll never get my games *sad sarcastic face*
i am getting an error i cant acess the play station store :(
death_by_wabbit is right people, do exactly as he said.
PLEASE PEOPLE GO BACK TO POST #16 AND DOOOOOO WHAT IT SAYS. klokateer1986 don’t know what to tell you about the freezing part, just reboot and try it again after-all there are a hell of a lot of folks trying to download at the same time :)))) beard. They can’t take our lives off of us so we’re safe there.
btw for those who say sony didn’t have to give us anything
please read CNN
the japanese government and the US government and the CANADIAN and EU governments have called sony who has never shown up for testimony and only has issued statements answering their questions about how they will protect their users better and compensate them for it and gain our trust again if this is gaining our trusts in the face of continued server security issues including posting of customer info in which someone had actually looked at the stolen database and called a phone number and CONFIRMED that the info was from her account after it was leaked onto the net.
now kirai has to goto congress to answer those exact questions if this is to compensate us
My problem isn’t the errors, I downloaded the two PSP and one PS3 games perfectly fine. It’s the fact that I want to get inFamous as my second game but because I downloaded (but did not purchase) the time trial, it shows that I have already purchased the game and will not let me select it.
Account Management > Transaction Management > Services List
Worked for me! Thanks!
the store is still an error code mess but at least its available.
love how nobody understand that MILLIONS of people are all trying to do this at the same time…there will be issues because of this…chill people chill!
So the devilish ERROR 80710D36 is a “high traffic” STORE issue?? It makes sense but… I had never seen it before (few years)… Hopefully it will get fixed (or calmed down… lol!).
idk if anyone else had this problem i got my two games for the ps3 but when i went for the ones for psp i was able to get one and when tried to get it said i got my limit for psp. can anyone help me
I’m finally downloading my free games (Dead Nation,LBP) I love you again Sony.
@Sony – My family & I just wanted to say thank you for the free content & the PSPlus trials. Granted, there’s are some hiccups in getting them (if only because PSN is getting slammed w/ traffic), but that is to be expected. My kid brother justUsed his PS+ trial to getOddworld: Abe’s Exodus. He loved that game when he was younger & has been dying to play it again!
Sony this sucks from your part, first of all, the system is bugged as hell, i clicked GET FREE 1st game then clicked on wipeout bundle, then both options dissapeared, then the same happened to the second “free” game, but this time i didnt get to pick a game, which was going to be infamous.
Not only that but you are only giving this day to claim the rewards, effectively screwing the majority of your consumers, this is just plain bad from your part.
The only thing that worked for me is the Playstation PLUS, thingy, no wonder, perhaps you want me to try it so i go plus next.
PLEASE FIX IT, i want Wipeout bundle as my first option and Infamous as my second one.
and give more days than only 1
Dead Nation question: Is there a online Multiplayer mode for this game?
GOD DAMMIT SONY !(NO OFFENSE)
EVERYTIME I TRY TO GET MY GAMES BACK ITS LIKE ERROR CODE :80710D36
I WANT MY INFAMOUS MAN I TRY TO GET IT AND THEN FREE GAME SLOT 1 GOS MISSING! WTFH?!
RAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
they mods took off my post that showed the utube video for the fix how lame XD
watch?v=sZfm6g03SLs just type that after the utube thing to see it.
…………………i had aproblem and it was fixed whil;e i was about to post my complaint so um goodbye.
they cheated me of my games. it was downloadin n den it said an error occured and i didnt get anything execpt ps
@1385 where did it say there was only one day? EVERYTHING i read says you have till July 3rd.
@madtyger you just gotta be difficult don’t ya? have you played the time trial yet? I know that I can’t even purchase a game that has a pending time trial. that may be it
well thats just great…. i only was able to get 3 games since “ps3 game 1” messed up on me and i wasnt able to get a game on that one so i went to “ps3 game 2” and when i finished with game 2 i notice game 1 was gone
can you help me with that sony please
yay im getting infamous and dead nation so it looks like its gonna be alright!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http:// www. youtube. com /watch?v=sZfm6g03SLs
watch it T^T
woops my bad i though till june third, effectively making it last only 1 day, hehe, but seriously, i dont have “games now” i selected my first option Wipeout bundle, second option didnt even had the chance, i got the “Free second game”, GET NOW and then no game to choose