It Seems Sony’s Welcome Back Pack Doesn’t Suit Everyone

TSA Staff 199 Comments

We’d been offline for well over three weeks, the PSN’s downtime giving many gamers chance to catch up on some single player stuff (or, of course, defect and jump onto other ships) but over the weekend things started to grind back in life, culminating in a stuttering restart on Sunday and everyone (except Japan) back online Monday.  It’s been an odd few weeks, people generally feeling a bit left in the dark but hopeful that Sony would get everything fixed and we – the loyal gamers – would get rewarded.

Well, yesterday evening the various territories announced their Welcome Back packs – a selection of PS3 and PSP games that PlayStation gamers could opt for, once the Store’s back online.  Whenever that’s going to be.  Were people happy?  Well, despite the games being offered generally being pretty good titles, the general concensus around the internet (and from 11 pages of comments here on TSA) is that Sony’s most loyal gamers are feeling a little bit hard done by – mainly because they’ve already bought most, if not all, of the games listed.

Let’s take a look at the European options, then.  First up, the PS3 games.  We’ll be able to pick two out of the following five: LittleBigPlanet, Infamous, Wipeout HD, Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty and Dead Nation.  Now, we don’t know about you personally, but that’s really not a bad selection of games.  You’ve got the wonderful (albeit slightly dated now with the superior sequel) LittleBigPlanet, a massive third person action game in the shape of Infamous, one of the best racing games ever created with Wipeout HD (and the Fury add-on), cute platformer Quest for Booty and top down zombie blaster Dead Nation.

Really, what did you expect?

We’ve seen comments around the net from those that had already bought all five complaining that there’s nothing in there for them – but these are popular, high scoring games, so anyone regularly buying them would have already got them – that’s going to be the case whichever five titles Sony picked.  And of course they’re all first party titles, we’d imagine the logistics and licensing behind trying to secure third party titles would have been a nightmare, not to mention the physical restriction of having to ensure the games were available to download from the Store, you’re not getting Blu-rays here.

The PSP selection’s equally strong: LittleBigPlanet is great, ModNation Racers is one of the most rounded games on the platform, Pursuit Force is an oldie but worth looking at, and Killzone Liberation’s a decent enough filler for anyone looking for more Killzone, albeit third person and top-down.  Again, all first party, all downloadable, and – yes – if you’re a hardcore Sony fan you’ve probably already got them.

But what were Sony supposed to do?  Offer credit for every account?  Even if it’s just £20 – a rough figure pulled from approximating the value of the above games – that’s over one a half billion pounds, hardly realistic in anyone’s eyes, right?  Could they have offered newer games?  Certainly – although Dead Nation’s recent enough the others are a little dated now, but we weren’t ever going to get LittleBigPlanet 2 (it’s still selling) and inFamous 2’s just around the corner, so presumably Sony thought a refresher with the first game might have been a good idea.

Warhawk, though, should have been on there.  With Starhawk announced and hype at an all time high, securing the first game would have ignited interest and got people talking about Lightbox’s 2012 offering.  Why it’s not on there is anyone’s guess, licensing, perhaps – who knows – but swapping the third person multiplayer shooter for the rather short Ratchet and Clank episode might have swayed people’s minds a little.

And if you have got all five games (and the PSP titles) then at least there’s 30 days of PlayStation Plus to keep you going – but hey – let’s hear your opinions…

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199 Comments

  1. I’m happy. I haven’t got Wipeout or Dead Nation, and I really want them both!

  2. I personally have 4 of the 5 games for ps3 but it is very generous of Sony to offer titles of such great quality and I will be happy getting Wipeout HD for free :)

  3. People are moaning idiots, and the human race is a failure.

    • I like this comment :P
      They are giving free stuff as a sorry for unscheduled downtime of a free service.

  4. I’m not that happy. I own 4 out of 5 of the PS3 games. It’s not a problem in and out of itself. The thing is most of these were offered before. So if you’re a loyal customer, chances are very high that you have already these games via PS+ (even if you’re not a avid buyer). Wipeout, LBP, Quest for Booty, were already offered through PS+ offers.
    I already “own” LBP and Wipeout HD Fury twice even before this offer.

    • You own Fury twice? I’d be surprised, since that’s never been given away. Wipeout HD has been part of PS+ during its first month, but Fury was then a discounted expansion. So you either bought it or you don’t have it.

      • Maybe he loved it that much he bought it twice.

      • My mistake, indeed. I have Fury once (bought).

  5. I personally guessed I would have all the games listed for the PS3 because I tend to buy all the largely anticipated and best of the PSN and PS3 titles as well as being signed to PS+(I was right although I don’t have the Fury pack). I don’t often buy PSP games and have been settling with all the free minis through PS+ so I have the full selection to choose from there.

    Sony couldn’t win here. Either offer high rating, good, popular games that their most active customers would already own but anyone else would be pleased to accept for free, or offer low scoring, less popular titles that people wouldn’t have bought anyway and get probably more complaints.

  6. Its an excellent selection of games. I can see why those who have them are moaning, but Sony are also trying to keep the casual gamers with them, people like me maybe, where I don’t spend that much on games and P+. Personally, I don’t think they could of offered more or better games.
    Its a toughy really, the hardcore will always moan as they buy everything anyway.

  7. I think it’s unreasonable to expect Sony to have given games to those unaffected in the first place. People need to stop moaning how they already own the games, firstly that’s their fault for gaming too much and I understand thats not the case for everyone but if it’s not then be grateful for the free 30 day plus, how about giving away your codes for the games if you don’t want them. Expecting Sony to shell out more money after spending a fortune on secruity is unfair, if you were in Sony’s shoes there isin’t a whole bunch more you could do. Game selection could have been better but it is none the less a good effort and gesture made on Sony’s part. We should respect that and be thankful.

    • are you kidding? ofcourse sony had to dish out a fortune on securit, but whos fault is that? they should have done it years ago.. I kind of EXPECT my card and personal information to be safe when i give it to companys like this.. so YES! they do owe me.

      • They owe you nothing. Don’t have such a feeling of entitlement, it’s ugly.

      • It’s like you read my mind and put it into words DJ.

      • It could well be decided that they do owe the EU, UK or any other state for possibly being incompetent and failing to protect personal details. In that they case people would have a legitmate claim to renumeration.

  8. If you’ve got all of those games like I have then there’s most probably nothing else Sony can offer you which you wont already have. Try to think of one big first party game on the Store which nobody bought. The only game I can think of which comes close is Super Rub ‘a’ Dub. It’s a game I already own but being one of the first games on the PlayStation Store I imagine not too many people have played it. Despite its age, it’s still an amazingly fun and creepily relaxing game and well worth anyone checking out. However, had Sony offered it then I imagine people would instead be moaning about how Sony’s offering such an old game.

  9. I think it’s a good deal, and I’ve 3 out of 5 of them. It must be annoying if people have all 5 already but then they can gift them to someone via game-share! At least making someone else’s day, especially for a person who has none of them (and with a good friend on PSN can effectively get 4 of them). Then there’s all the other goodies!

  10. I can’t help but feel like I’m being bit under-sold here. My details are floating around out in the big wide world, available to the highest bidder and I’m being compensated for that with 2 from 5 aging titles that have probably sold less than 100 digital copies in the last 6 months, therefore making them free makes little to no difference to Sony at all.
    I also feel a little bit like they are just trying to sell me sequels to these games, 3 of the games have planned sequels and 1 already has a sequel. I’m not sure that’s totally in keeping with the attitude I think Sony should be adopting at this particularly point in time, but maybe that’s more of a comment on my moral values than Sony’s.
    Anyway, personally I would have liked to have seen God of War HD Collection up there, it was going for £15 in the spring sale just as the PSN went down, its a first party title, it would boost sales of GoW3, but above all that its an absolutely stonker of a series that even people who already own it couldn’t complain about downloading and going through again.

    • You are also getting coverage for identity theft and fraud and the free month of PlayStation Plus.

      • Be nice to see this ID theft coverage, though – they’ve not detailed it yet, have they?

      • True, it is probably taking longer due to deals having to be made for various countries. Hopefully they will have something up soon.

      • Dealing with 20 countries is bound to take some time, but yeah will be interesting to see what it actually is.

      • Bit late for me this identity fraud crap. I’ve had £1600 taken out of my account already, and I have had to cancel cards etc. Waay too much of a coincidence for me, on a joint account only my card gets done. SOny way to slow, this offer is better than nothing though.
        I wont be using PSN again, unless its with the cards.

      • @Bilbo_bobbins – That sucks man, but how is it ‘way to much of a coincidence’? You could as easily have been done at an ATM, PIN reader, or any number of other online services.

    • Details that could’ve been found with ease though, and add Jambo said, in that regards you’ll be getting ID theft protection.

      How about they offer you nothing? Or a bunch of minis? That better?

      God of War HD would be a bad choice as it has an age-restriction.

      • Nice mature sentence in the middle there dj, really put your point across well.

        Ok, so GoW has age restrictions that is an issue, but it surely already countered by the fact that if the parental control settings are set correctly for the person’s using the account you couldn’t download it, whether its offered free or not

      • Yeah sorry was a bit sarcy. My apologies :-)

        There are the age-restrictions, but I’m sure there would be legal issues with just giving away an 18 rated game. Maybe not, I don’t know.

        Just seems like Sony offered FREE games and people are saying, that free stuff isn’t what I wanted so I’m going to moan. People would never do that with anything else.

        Take it or leave it really.

      • Not an issue at all mate, I can understand the frustration.

      • Also, your name breaks the CSS :-p

      • It does as well, it took me a couple of minutes to understand what you mean.
        @nofi If it raise any OCD issues you’d like resolved, you can remove the “Yohimbe!!!” bit from the tag. Doesn’t mean to much these days

      • Ehm Dead Nation is a 18+ game.

      • Voganlight actually raises a very good point – Dead Nation is an 18+/Mature rated game & even inFamous has a 16+ pegi rating from what I remember. Surely in that case, those that are under 16 are then reduced to just 3 choices?

        How would they restrict someone under the age from downloading these games?

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