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…
Watchful
Sony were always going to get a beating whatever games they chose. Obviously their most loyal customers are the most likely to have all the games.
I wonder if there are other, more indirect, ways of rewarding those who have the games being given away free. For example, I think Warhawk and MAG should be in the list instead of R&C:Q4B and Dead Nation.
The indirect reward in that case for loyal customers who already own those games is the expansion of the player base for those titles. The potential reward for Sony would be DLC sales for those games and in Warhawk’s case building interest in the sequel as mentioned in the article.
Personally, as a PS+ customer who has everything but inFamous already, 2 months of PS+ is ample ‘compensation’ (assuming the ID fraud protection covers any hypothetical future abuse). I’ll probably play inFamous for a few minutes before deleting it like I did the demo.
p9ul
So there’s nothing for you either then – apart from game you know you don’t like already.
Sony are missing a trick by not including MAG – I always fancied the game but never picked it up and even now when it’s reduced in price I don’t because I think no-one will be online – certainly not a 256 player free for all.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this and if it was offered It’d be one I’d go for as I imagine many others would choose it thinking that a huge influx of new players would then get to experience the game how the devs intended – there’d probably be more people online with it than there was at launch…
Kreisash
I did hope that they offered MAG as well even though I own it and all of the DLC.
Reason being to give life to the game which is very much needed.
However, you know that people would still complain if this was offered because they’d say they’re being offered a game that is dead and has no single player etc.
Watchful
@p9ul There’s plenty for me. As I said “Personally… 2 months of PS+ is ample ‘compensation’”.
And at the moment I’m glad I’m not in Japan where they don’t know when PSN will be back yet. Though in the end we may all benefit from the extra lengths Sony is having to go to to prove to the Japanese government that PSN is now much more secure.
Cerberus64
I too am one who has all 5 games on the PS3 list – I feel that they should definitely have included MAG (and another 4) to broaden the range and lessen the chance that someone would already have all the games.
I have one question regarding PS+ purchases – if you buy a game at a PS+ discount do you lose the game at the end of the 30 days there by forcing you to buy it again at full price to finish it or do you keep it forever?
DigitalEnemy
Hi,
You keep it forever!
TRiLoGY
Yes, if you buy a discounted game you get it forever, but if you download a free Game, you lose it if you stop subscribing..
matthangzhou
I didn’t like the demo either but really got into the full version of the game. Give it a chance and I’m sure you’ll grow to like it; if not, no great loss right?
LivedeviL
I’m sure other people have said this already (I’m not trawling through 5 pages to see tbh):
If you’ve got all 5 (or 9) why not just look and see how much you could sell the 2 (or 4) you are not that bothered about (or would get the most cash for), if you’re bothered about not having a box on your shelf just photocopy the cover and use an old DVD case or something.
Me personally I’m happy with the choices, I’m going to get inFamous and Ratchet & Clank, and for PSP LBP and ModNation racers :)
Was going to get LBP PSP at some point anyway :p
gaffers101
Those are my choices too :)
E8_BALL_
Dead nation & an extra 30days p+, cant complain.
(but i do feel for any users who own all titles, would’ve been me, if not for d.nation)
xdarkmagician
They should just give people the option to choose a copy of infamous 2 instead of everything they’re offering. That’ll shut people up ’cause nobody has it yet. Personally, I don’t approve of how they handled the situation, but I do believe that they’re making a serious effort to win people back. I have 4/5 games offered, and am now faced with the tough decision of picking the number 2, out of all the problems in the world, this is one I don’t mind having. Also what about everybody with 2 or 3 different regional accounts, won’t that double or triple the rewards?
TURRICAN-808
The only alternative is that holders of PSN accounts could’ve voted for the list of games. I bet Flower and Warhawk would have been on the list. Either way, Wipeout HD and Dead Nation are awesome!
DirtyHabit
I’d say they left Warhawk off the list. Because it would require server support, which will cost them even MORE money. With Starhawk around the corner surely they are already looking to move server support away from the old game.
Sorry if someone already said this, cant be arsed to trawl thru all the whineing comments again.
I’m perfectly happy with the offer. 2 PS3(hopefully 4 over 2 accounts) and 2 PSP games…. result!
dude90
The list is a joke, it’s a reason why not to trust SCEE.
aerobes
I love this comment.
You can’t trust SCEE because they’re giving away games we have zero entitlement to anyway?
Just let me grab my pitchfork, where’s the meeting point and what time do we march? ;)
moshi
I wonder what SCEE are hiding from us with the list then if they can’t be trusted, sounds like a good conspiracy in the making.
Right I’m off to write down all the names of the games and see if I can arrange them to reveal the cryptic message to reveal the black cold heart that the corporation really is.
rept0n
Yup… all five on the list (although I sold Infamous).
Much happier with the PSP list.
I think I was just hoping for ModNationRacing (after the US Plus members got it for free!).
The only other option would have been to give a new/exclusive game e.g. Journey – which would have left everyone happy, but I’d imagine that’s MUCH harder to justify on a cost-differential.
xdarkmagician
“I think I was just hoping for ModNationRacing (after the US Plus members got it for free!).”
You might want to recheck your source. I’ve been a PS+ member since about 42 mins after it was launched and we never got ModN free. We got Wipeout HD… that expires with your subscription.
Klart
Although I am a day 1 Plus subscriber I’m happy with the choices; I don’t have 2 out of 5, so that’s great for me.
The 5 games are good choices; I didn’t expect SONY to give such releases, but rather the smaller/cheaper games. They’re all quality.
It is a bit of a kick in the face to day 1 Plus subscribers though; 2 games were already given free to them at the start of pLus (LBP & Wipeout) and 2 other were discounted through Plus, so chances are you have those as well.
baska
im a loyal customer who has purchased all the games offered. like the PSN+ situation, im only getting games offered that ive already purchased.