The PlayStation Network “Welcome Back” program has now expired. If you’ll remember, PlayStation offered up a decent selection of games from which you could pick two for the PS3 and two for PSP – included in the options was the brilliant WipEout HD – as a result of their devastating network hack.
This expiry, though, has caused a bit of a stir. Seems like Sony have pulled the games first thing on the 3rd (as the clock struck midnight) rather than letting gamers choose their titles during today, as you might expect. In the US, the wording said “through July 3rd” which we’re guessing means ‘inclusive of’.
Here in the UK the press release stated ’30 days’, and it went live on the 3rd of June…
One forum user (on Slickdeals) called Sony’s customer helpline to complain, and SCEA’s Jeff Rubenstein was the target of a few questions on Twitter. “It ended today,” he said, speaking to a journalist rather blunty. “There were 30 days to claim it, not sure why people decided to wait. We were clear from the outset.”
I’m assuming most readers here will have already got their games, but did anyone who left it until the last minute feel a bit cheesed off when the games weren’t on the store today?
Rocket_345
I’d be cheesed off if i hadn’t got my free things but it’d be pretty stupid to leave it till last minute.
XisTG
By now you should have picked your game, yeah.
But to take the games down at the stroke of midnight would only be fairplay if they had made the Welcome Back available on the 3rd by the same time.
But all in all, my first sentence supercede’s the other one :P
Kevatron400
That’s a shame, didn’t realise it was so soon. Could have gotten another 2 games from my gf’s account, but didn’t really think about it.
tactical20
Is there any way to see when your PS+ is due to expire?
fattyuk
Yer mate go to account management>transaction list>services list
tom_lord
Nothing to see here, move along now…
DJ Judas
I’ve been out of the country for two and a half weeks. I’ve been back a few days now and only thought to get the PS+ and games etc today.
I’d have accepted that they weren’t working any more if they’d disappeared from the store rather than sitting there teasing me without the links working :(
Burgess_101
i dont think anything registered for me i couldnt get my games looked at my subscriptions no free 60 days as im an existing PS+ member
Watchful
What did Sony say about it when you contacted them?
BigCheese
Whoops, forgot to get my PSP games…
fattyuk
Has anyone else noticed once you’ve downloaded the infamous 2 trial, then if you go back to the section to try and buy it,that it says £49.99 but “already purchased”
Winkle
What happened to the fraud protection plan that we we’re all going to get in Europe? Cant remember seeing anything other than they will be letting people know in the near future when PSN came back on.
skibadee
I signed up for it the other day.