UPDATE: The Welcome Back offer has been extended until 9am Pacific on Tuesday, July 5th. If you haven’t had a chance to download the offerings, please do so before then.
Just a friendly reminder: Your complimentary Welcome Back games are waiting for you, but they won’t wait forever.
To welcome customers back after last month’s outage, we’ve made a selection of PS3 and PSP games, as well as a 30-day subscription to PlayStation Plus available for free download via our Welcome Back program. This offer expires on Sunday, July 3rd, so please make sure to claim what’s yours before then.
For more details on the Welcome Back program, please click here.
Now start downloading, and thanks for being a part of PlayStation Network!
I’m From France, and I wonder why this offer is extented only in the US? There is no reason about that, if you extend the offer, please extend it to everybody, me too I want to enjoy those games.
Jeff Rubenstein and Sony,
Great job with fixing this. I’m glad to see that the issue was addressed. Thank you for taking time out of the busy holiday weekend for us. I didn’t thing this would be addressed until after the holiday. I was pretty upset yesterday, as most of us were. I hope that all that posted here, or at other areas, are able to claim what was given to them. Thank you again for you quick resolution and attention to this matter.
Thanks Sony,
You did what any Company would do not to lose their loyal following especially after the security breach debacle. I have been a fan since the first PS and will continue to be. Thank you
You can’t be serious – only the US store? That has to be a tremendous joke, right!??
Thank you Sony, you did the right thing and I, like others, am a happy camper having downloaded my two freebies & more. Way to make up with your broken hearted…
First, I would like to say a big THANK-YOU to Sony for the Welcome Back program and free games – you guys are awesome!! I did not have any of the 5 games for PS3, so I was like a kid in a candy store trying to decide which 2 games to get….. and after reading reviews for all 5 on IGN, I picked Wipeout and Infamous. Unfortunately, Wipeout does not have an easy setting for beginners, and it gets boring real fast when I can’t win the first race and keep finishing 7th or 8th every time (I had forgotten how much I really suck at racing games). However, that was my fault for picking the game, should’ve gone with LBP or Stardust.
Now on to Infamous – this game was AWESOME!! I really enjoyed playing it the past several weeks, and just finished it last night. Infamous was tons of fun, I am definitely hooked – Infamous 2 is now on my wish list, just waiting for the price to come down. Because of this one game I give Sony’s Welcome Back program an A+ !!
Lastly, I’ve enjoyed the 30 free days of PS+, and will probably get the 3 month package with the current bonus month offer. Lilo and Stitch was kinda lame for me, but I let my 6-year-old daughter play it, and she liked it….. so for all the complainers and haters on these boards, just wanted to let Sony know they had one customer enjoy that free game :)
Overall, great job Sony, and I look forward to the next outage so I can get some more free games! Say about 4 months from now, after my PS+ expires, would be a good time for another outage deal :)
Jeff, and everyone, thanks for looking into that and not only reopening the Welcome Back for the remainder of July 3rd but also extending it well into July 5th.
+1 Sony
Has the offer extended until July 5 for Europe as well?
Because i cant see anywhere in PS-store the Welcome Back packet in my UK account.
so the extension is only for the USA? well done Sony,well done. :(
Sony,
why cant we see the welcome back program in the store. It has been acting weird for the past 3 days and cant access it through XMB->Whats new also??
Come on, what was the point of offering free games, if you wanted to take them off so soon.
i believe we should be entitled to 60 free days of playstation plus service.
(service was down for almost a month, and when it did finally resume during the week of E3, we did not get the promised 2 WEEKLY updates, as promised. amongst many other things
That’s great.. what about those of us that don’t have a ps3.. but just have a psp? I actually have two of them.. but I can’t manage anything at all, because the ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SITE IS STILL DOWN. That’s amazing.
I’m done. Not being able to secure your network is one thing.. but this.. Later.
No more money from me.
I know the deadline has been extended, but it’s moot if I (or anyone else) can’t have access to account management. If there is any other way to get the games, I’d like to know.
I just want to say thank you for the deadline extension. Thanks!
For those people who think that voicing your dissatisfaction is whining: it is not. When I gave my personal information to Sony, I did so with the belief that I can trust Sony to do a good job in protecting it. Two free games and a subscription to some paid service doesn’t make up for the carelessness. However this was the goodwill gesture that Sony constructed as their way of apologizing.
Perhaps some of you believe that an apology can be half-assed and it’s okay. Well I have higher standards. If this is the form of apology that Sony decided they would like to use, then I expect it done properly and with sincerity. After all, this is Sony’s opportunity to demonstrate to everyone that they’re sorry bad things have happened under their watch but they now have everything under control.
So those of you who got it earlier: good for you. My earliest convenience was July 3rd and I was perfectly within my reasonable right to voice my dissatisfaction about what happened earlier.
“UPDATE: The Welcome Back offer has been extended until 9am Pacific on Tuesday, July 5th. If you haven’t had a chance to download the offerings, please do so before then.”
For some reason I cannot access Welcome Back offer…
I don’t know why Sony sent information about the 30 day Welcome back offer 24 days after the offer had begun.
So you give us a free month of playstation plus but everything we downloaded under that subscribition has an expiry date. The games offered under the playstation plus subscription were better then the ones from the welcome back program. Figures SONY cares more about making its buck then keeping its customers happy
Thank you for respecting your customers and reactivating the Welcome Back programme.
When I get home from work today, I will attempt to initiate the downloads of my two selections on my PS3. I hope it all goes off without difficulties.
I will post here either way whether I am successful in getting my two free games, or if I encounter any difficulties in the process.
Well, I’m in the UK, had some bad times going on with my new baby so only got round to downloading today, and there’s no Welcome back page at all.
So is the upshot that it’s extended in the US only? That’s harsh if so. I’m chopping in my PS3 for an Xbox if so.
hmmm….guys please help…..I can’t even find the Welcome Pack on the Playstation Store now whereas yesterday i could even though i couldn’t download anything….
Thanks Jeff and Sony, I really appreciate it. I quickly downloaded my stuff as soon as I could. This is what makes you better than any other gaming companies, you do listen to customers and if you continue to do so word spreads around and you’ll get a lot more loyal customers. I was pretty happy with what you did so I bought something else from the PS store and will continue to do so.
Well there you go complainers. There sure aren’t as many positive remarks or apologies on here about the promotion being extended as there were for the negative comments. I hope you people that sold all of your sony stuff(which i’m doubting anyone did because on the internet everyone is all talk and no action) are enjoying the taste of your own foot in your mouth. The nerve of the people threatening to sue a company over their own procrastination on redeeming a FREE offer. Some people will never be pleased.
9 am pacific time.
specific enough for you fools?
The welcome back program is nowhere to be found in the PS store.
I can find the welcome back content on the PS home menu, but I want to get the games,I never used PS home until today..
Where can i find the welcome back program in the store????
I only found out yesterday about the welcome back program being up, despite checking game website regularly :S
If the Sony staff are reading this, would you like to confirm that the Welcome Pack has been extended for the US but NOT for the EU? In spite of the preferential treatment, this clarification would at least save me the time trying to get the freebies. Thanks.
Um..I randomly checked on the welcome back..Even though I had already gotten my games when the welcome back first came on June. Now I saw the 30 days for PS+ again on the welcome back program. I downloaded it and now I have additional 30 days and it ends on August 2nd 2011. :O I dunno if this is happening to anyone else :S
my ps3 died and i cant get a new one by the deadline . I have been gone for a bit , but soon i return . can i get an extension ? or just S.O.L. ?
So first I find out that this thing doesn’t seem to work for me at all, then I found out that it a limited time offer but I think to my self: “Hey they have extended the time! YAY, I will go enable this now”. But now it appears the extension was only for the US. Yet I have seen a report about it working for people in Sweden?
@jr927
shhh… lol
I’ve tried to access the PlayStation Store the whole of last week and wasn’t able to. When I just got in today, the Welcome Back package is no there? And now I see that the program is extended until July 5th and the package STILL isn’t there? What gives? I live in Norway, not that it should matter.
Do I need to cancel PS+ at the end of the 30 days? I don’t want to be charged anything
@El-Duderino510
it ends after 30 days
Neil_McK1701 said: “I will be contacting my Attorney General on Tuesday.”
I really hope you did, so you could get laughed out of the building.
You know, I had more respect for Sony BEFORE they caved to these whiners. Their “I’m never buying Sony again” stick is getting REALLY old. Now when kids are offered two free games, they can whine about the selection, wait until the last day, miss that 30-day deadline (a whole MONTH), continue to blame Sony, threaten “contact their Attorney General” on top of that, and still get what they want! Oh, and of course, we have people from other countries wanting our American welcome back package, as though we have a say in what goes on in their country’s package.
I used to think we PlayStation gamers were a classier bunch over owners of that “other” console, but I guess not.
I’ll try to have a happy 4th, anyway…
thank you god!!
Earlier today I thought to myself, hey, it’s a holiday weekend — maybe I should give Sony some more time before I freak out. Then I saw online that they’ve put the Welcome Back store back up. Then, about an hour ago, while I was outside lighting fireworks with my family, a Sony CSR CALLED ME ON THE TELEPHONE to tell me that the store is back up until 9am tomorrow morning.
So, while the initial response was still wrong, they’ve now done the right thing. Kudos Sony!
Suddenly I’ve lost interest in that XBox. :)
Well lets all congratulate Sony on screwing thousands of people out of $9.99 for their automatic renewal of the free Qriocity trial that most of us signed up for on the “Welcome Back Package”. Although Im Sure they can point out that this was stated in the “user agreement” they failed to make it abundantly clear. Now many of us “valuable customers” who waited day after day for the Playstation network to get back online, are being hit with this suckerpunch, (no Infamous pun intended) most likely to make up for the lost revenue from when the system was down. It wouldn’t seem so dastardly if they notified you to let you know that your subscription was running out and you needed to cancel before it renewed. But no, they wait for it to renew and then send you an email with instructions on how to cancel, basically saying “sorry no refunds” explicitly!!!!!!! Coincidence? Maybe. Ive been a huge Playstation advocate, towards all my friends, family, and coworkers, for years but, something that feels so below the belt is the kind of thing that makes people change brands. Sincerely disappointed, DarthWeez
Jeff, I already downloaded the games a while ago actually and I am very thankful for those, however I tried to download the home items and the system charges me .50 cents for downloading as a sale tax (based on 0.00 USD) How can I fix this? I am in no possibilities of adding funds to my wallet right now (Dont have a credit card)
Sorry, I’m not done. To add insult to the Playstation community, not only was the free 1 month trial to Qriocity offered before the “Welcome Back ” package even came around, but the library is so limited that after using the service for just 15 minutes, and searching to find 75% of the artists, albums, and songs that I searched for, werent even available…..well, that just put the icing on the cake! How do You charge top dollar for a less than standard service, and then not expect people to get upset when a 30 day “free trial” that was supposed to be compensation for the mishandling of your private information, turns into an ill informed automatic membership charge!!!!!!! Am I the only one who has been taken by surprise on this?
Dear Mr. Rubinstein,
I strongly disagree about what you’ve post on Twitter, when answering an user about WBP ending (that information on FAQ was not clear, as thousand of Sony customers didn’t understand why it has disappeared on early July 3).
But the problem was solved, and I think I was respected as customer about this matter in the end. And as I’ve post my complaints, I do the same on the other hand.
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Sony.
Thanks for extending the deadline.
I already posted a rather disappointed and angry comment here and although I think this was the only option for Sony in this situation, I want to say thank you Sony, you guys are really listening to us and you are trying to rebuild our trust in you. Good job and unexpectedly fast reply from the customer service ;-)
Why isn’t the deadline extended also for the Europe?
Yeah, this sucks BIGTIME!! It seems like we who are living in Europe DID NOT GET THE EXTRA TWO DAYS!!!
The only thing showing on what’s new is welcome back program for playstation home, but nothing for Plaaystation store meaning I can’t download any freebies…:( Simply put Sony – You suck.
PS. and what about that page “under maintenance” for a whole damn month when you’ve been trying to get a hold of the games…?
was surprised to get a phone call from Sony yesterday at 6:30 pm… but currently doing the downloads now…
Some things I think should be addressed:
*Calling those who called in, giving them 16 hours to download the games on a holiday weekend is a little inconsiderate. We were out of town, and had planned on spending the night, ended up driving home 2 hours so we could get what was rightfully ours.
*The RUDENESS of staff when we first called in. I don’t care how busy you are or how much crap you have been given, being a cocky [DELETED] (JOHN) is not the way to go. Put yourselves in our shoes and deal with the same things.. how Ironic it was when he had to call me back…
*What abut those who did not call in… how were they notified? DId an email go out? What bout those that did not know about the blog… is Sony still cheating them?
Thank you SO MUCH Playstation!! I was pretty bummed that I had missed/forgotten to get my free PS Plus subscription.. but I soon learned that you’d given us an extension, and for that I am SO grateful!!
Like many people have already said, you didn’t owe us anything, and you didn’t have to do this for us. But it’s plain for everyone to see just HOW MUCH you love your user base! :)
Thanks once again, and I look forward to using my Plus upgrade to purchase some things this month! :))
hope i can still get ps+ subscription… I wont be mad at sony cause i already had 30 days free….I saw it in welcome back and didnt consider a deadline for it….am i the only one offered 60+ days? It’s no biggie thank you for the games and the membership you have my loyalty to the fullest….much love from the Bean
gee thanks guys, it’s not like i was working for the last while and couldn’t grab the rest of it oh wait. I am displeased with your service right now as this should not have expired. i am dissapointed greatly and i will be contacting you.
My stupid company that is repairing my ps3 has had the dang thing for a month. and i couldnt download anything from this promotion. Why did this have to expire again.
Thanks for the Free downloads. I am a loyal PS user, and always will be. Keep up the good work ^_^
So let me get this straight, I get service interruption for more than a month, then I go away for work and come back to have the offer expired? I appreciate the gesture in providing this but at the very least this offer should be valid as long as the service interruption. It was not 30 days. I am not even accounting for the fact that my personal email was compromised…
Why would this offer expired? Why do you live under the assumption that I check this blog on a monthly basis? Why wasn’t this information clearly indicated in an email (the email that was sent did not mention this expiry date) and why wasn’t a reminder sent before the expiration?
It sounds like this was not very well thought out, and I am very disappointed at the result, more so now that I know I missed out on the free games!
I am very dissapointed too.
Yes, there was an announcement via e-mail
And.. Sony announced more detailed information about start en end dates..
No, i didn’t get any notice about the start of this free offer….
Now i read this was between 3 June and 3 July… :-(