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!
the games were there yesterday but would not let me download them and now there not there at all WTF
how can u say there will be free games and get rid of them?
@ BUTTNICKERS
Thank you! Hopefully people will start reading now before posting that they cant download the games. I will admit, I had no idea but then I came to this site and read like 5 lines to find out. Oh well, some people don’t like reading!
Anyway, thank you Sony, I know that there has been a lot of bad reactions to the Store and the Welcome Back Package but I think that it all went through pretty well! I wishhhhh that inFAMOUS 2 demo was available in Australia though :( Oh well, already pre ordered that anyway!
IF YOU TRIED TO GET YOUR WELCOME BACK PACK AN GOT ERRORS AND FREE GAME IS NO LONGER IN WELCOME BACK LIST, DO THIS TO SELECT AND GET THEM
go into account management>>transaction management>>services list>>SCEA Promo . CLICK ON GAME 1,THEN CLICK SELECT CONTENT AT BOTTOM,PICK GAME AND DOWNLOAD,THEN GO BACK TO SCEA PROMO AGAIN, DO SAME FOR GAME 2
IF YOU GET ERRORS WHEN CERTAIN PAGES ARE TRYING TO LOAD JUST BACK UP AND TRY GOING BACK IN UNTILL IT WORKS. HOPE THIS HELPS
Hey so I was able to get the first game I wanted which was the wipeout HD and it looks great and is downloading right now. (Which I got from the XMB menu) And which im trying to do again for the second game. Anyways the second game I want to download is inFamous and its not one of the choices I have. I only have four, Dead Nation, LBP, super stardust, and wipeout HD, I was just wondering if this is common among others, or if its just me. Thanks
one more time just in case people dont understand buttkickers lol
Just wondering, but why is it that when i go to the welcome back thing, the playstation plus isnt there. i got my games, but the playstation plus isnt there.
IF YOU TRIED TO GET YOUR WELCOME BACK GAMES AN GOT ERRORS AND FREE GAME 1 AND/OR 2 IS NO LONGER IN WELCOME BACK LIST, DO THIS TO SELECT AND GET THEM
go into account management>>transaction management>>services list>>”SCEA Promo” . CLICK ON GAME 1,THEN CLICK SELECT CONTENT AT BOTTOM,PICK GAME AND DOWNLOAD,THEN GO BACK TO SCEA PROMO AGAIN, DO SAME FOR GAME 2
IF YOU GET ERRORS WHEN CERTAIN PAGES ARE TRYING TO LOAD JUST BACK UP AND TRY GOING BACK IN UNTILL IT WORKS. HOPE THIS HELPS
^^^^
When can we get Outland?
This really sux for me!!! I bought my ps 3 on April 20th got home plugged it in and went to play black ops and thats how i found out about PSN being hacked.Talk about disappointment,it was like opening a christmas present and being told i could not play with it till february!!! And now all PSN members get free stuff,and just because i bought my PS3 the day after the incident i get screwed! Sony should extend this offer to anyone who bought a PS3 within the time the servers were hacked, if they can photocopy thier receipt and e-mail it to PSN. I sold my Wii and its version of Black Ops in order to purchase the PS3,If I would have kept my Wii I could have at least enjoyed playing CoD multiplayer,but no,I upgraded to The PS3 and got screwed out of any online play for just as long as the rest of ya’ll.Help me out SONY! Where is my 2 free games? or some sort of compensation.I have the reciepts to prove I bought my PS3 !!
2285-anyone that bought the ps3 on April 20th should call sony and talk to them personally.
Can I play Killzone Liberation on my ps3 if i download the game to my ps3?
I may just be one of the few people in the world who didn’t have any problem with downloading games. It was a very simple procedure and even with the high traffic in the store my downloads were finished relatively quick. I downloaded LBP which took about 2hrs (Download started 15 minutes after the program was commissioned) but Wipeout only took about an hour and fifteen minutes. Last time I checked the store there were no bugs and on my friend’s PSN account it took only about 30 minutes for Dead Nation to download. I don’t know if it’s a combination of the bandwidth being consumed due to the traffic of the users or maybe people’s own personal Internet connection issues but either way I had a relatively smooth and fluid transaction of the Welcome Back Program. So kudos to you Sony for this incentive you have given us, the consumers!
^ Nope.
^ That was directed towartds blade053
we didnt have any problems either with all ps3 games. we got all 5 due to 3 accounts and all 4 psp games except we dont have a psp right now so we couldnt test those
i keep getting a message saying unavailable, if its cause i had to change my account its because the email attached to the system was invalid so i reset it and that was the only way i could figure out how to get back on the network after it was down. is that the reason it is saying its unavailable?
2292-maybe. i would call sony and tell them your situation.
When does Europe recieve ‘Welcome Back’ package.
also, will the Playstation Home at ‘E3’ have high trafficking like it had during the ‘100 free home items’ ?
Thanks, Josh
Could a representative from Sony please confim whether or not we get to keep the free themes and avatars after the free 30 days of Playstation Plus is over and we don’t renew?
I understand that we don’t get to keep games and add-ons, but what about themes and avatars?
I think its the dumbest thing ever. I accidently presses “O” when i was about to get a free game. Now i cant even get a free game. Thanks for nothing, Sony!
the ps3 games that we got for free are taking forever to download and it said downloading but then the status changed to pending and it is now stuck on pending can any1 help or is any1 else having this problem
Personally, I think those that got their PS3’s by the Sunday after the 20th got shafted. That was back when PSN was promised to be up in a few days. It wasn’t till that Monday till ‘maintenance’ turned into hacked. Sucks that we got caught in a technicality, but looks like we’ll have to grin and bear it.
I just downloaded inFamous twice…. what should I do?????
Noooo!! I downloaded the welcome back free games thing, but TA-DAH!! CONNECTION ERROR!! And now i don’t get the 2 games… :(((
What if i have 2 accounts registered in my PS3 will i be able to download 2 ps3 games each on my two accounts?
if you have more then one account you get the welcome back package on all of them. well as long as they were created before the hacking.
HELP!!!! It keeps saying error has occurred when i try to get the free games and it bring up the error code 80431063 and i’ve already typed that in on ur error code thing and it doesn’t bring up anything. I’ve also tried several times and it doesn’t work. I don’t want it to expire before i get the games so please help.
@2302
Yep my two accounts were registered before the hacking, Thank you for answering my question..
sony must have known there would be a big demand to download,so why is the welcome back only up for 1 day?i cant get in to download,keep getting error
hmmm 2 free 10$ games and 30 days of plus … that any free games u get expire when plus does so i get a 30 day trial of abandoned for s4 ….seriously ! . Dont really seem like such a great “WELCOME BACK” offer to me
Any chance that we will get more choices for our two free PS3 game downloads?
@2305 yep me too way too many people
What a large, steaming pile of FAIL! after fighting the bugs last night, it says that I have the games that I chose. But where are they? I couldn’t see anything in my download list for them. The transaction history showed that I got them. But they’re not anywhere to be seen.
Is there something I’m missing? Was I supposed to say a special chant before trying to download? Is the PSN development group outsourced to a 3rd world country? If so, hopefully Sony and other companies will realize that it doesn’t really cost less to use such “cheap” services. [/end rant]
Anyway, what happens now? How do I get the games that I was supposedly given, but the system failed?
@2309
is u figure that out tell me i am going threw that exact same problem
@INGLOURIOSBASTRD-this is the month of june. the welcome back package ends in july. thats next month.
I went to download the wipeout HD. It comes as three downloads but it only downloaded the extra pack and the unlock pack. There is no full game and I can’t find it in the downloads or the welcome back screen anymore
+ BUTTKICKERS
it comes up with error every time
Thats nice. Rejoice gamers.
Anyone knows when will be the last day to use or download the PS Plus free for 30 days?
Personsally the choice to chose from ‘Dead Nation’, ‘LittleBigPlanet’, ‘Rachet and Clank’, ‘Wipeout’ and ‘Infamous’ is pretty weak….cause ive played all of them.. about 2 years ago…. and there all terrbibe (no offense playstation)
so chose the Playstation Plus Membership…. that way you can sponge of the big stuff for a few days… cause ive already got 3 new games that cost £20+ for free :) THANKS PLAYSTATION you rock xx
Is it to late now. cause i can get it :(
how come i can’t find or get back the games that i had purchased before psn was shut down,there is no trace of them anywhere and it won’t let me redownload them unless i buy them again ?
It says: This cannot be selected at this time.
i have received a message from psn? saying to forward “that” message to 25 people in my friends list & that it must be sent to show that i am using that account & that my account will be credited with $50 if i do this, is this a genuine message from the psn??
Hey Guys, I finished downloading inFamous Yesterday but I try to install it and it seems to stuck at 14% and produce a corrupted file and I tried to install it again and again but to no avail…it gives me a 80029563 error which is unknown after checking playstation website…Any ideas guys I would appreciate em
Shame there isn’t anything at all for those of us who play JRPGs. I don’t like any of the free games :-( would have been nice if they’d mixed up the genres a little to suit everyone!
Welcome back package has been implemented… COD black op escalation pack is projected to release June 10th(I think that is what a blog moderator said when replying to that question so I may be wrong with that info)….I wonder if people will stop complaining now….doubtful though as people will always find something to complain about. (legit complaints are not included when I speak of the complaining and stupidity this blog is plagued with)
Anyway I’m stoked Sony got the store and WBP up and running as fast as they did(and considering the scale of the network and issues they faced Sony made excellent time (I know all to well the perils of rebuilding a Network) Also It was pretty cool the store went back up on my birthday…nice little coincidence. Yes I am randomly typing my thought…I’ve been up all nite I am kind of out of it…I think its about time for me to catch some sleep…at least a few hours I dont want to mess up my sleep pattern and feel like crap at work all week…gnite all I hope everyone is enjoying the WBP I know I am…I hope some games like tactics ogre get discounted while I have the PS+ services(I may subscribe for the data back up feature alone..) I need to stop typing…..Later.
Some of us already own the games that are offered as free, what would be cool is if sony offered us one free avatar of our choice from the store. They dont cost that much so sony wouldnt be taking a major blow on anything and we get a really cool new avatar for our user and player card.
Hello!
I am downloading InFamous right now so Welcome back works for my ps3. But when I go to PSP PSN store I dont see Welcome Back program even when I go to Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotions… Is this just a temporary error or am I doing something wrong ?