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…
djsunna
SONY offer good games for free and get slated if SONY offered PS1 titles or MINIS titles they would have been slated for that.SONY are caught between a rock and a hard place on this. if you own them all then it’s just unlucky maybe they’ll put out a couple of alternatives (did i read Germany had SUPER STARDUST HD instead of infamous) so there might be a compromise somewhere, Now i still own LBP and INFAMOUS on blu rays i had WIPEOUT with FURY expansion but lost it so gunna have that back, so it’s a toss up between dead nation which looks good and ive played an R&C demo which wasn’t bad either. no psp so nothing there but 30 days PS+ looks interesting might even tempt me to buy a year of it.
UKZ-N3M1515
Do we get 2 from each list? id like dead nation and wipeout, but also killzone liberation and maybe LBP PSP
Boomshanks
Giving free money to every account will be a tremendous loss for Sony. Most likely too big a loss, so I understand why they won’t do that. Also with these games there is a high probability only one account per PS3 will get them which will greatly reduce the number of downloads.
I have to admit I already have all 5 games though. The only thing I’ll be getting is that I will always have the games with me and I can sell the disc version, though they’re not worth anything now.
freezebug2
Being back online, the free ID theft protection package and an extension to my PS+ was plenty for me. I’m not bothered about the games at all but I’ll take the free game downloads…because they’re free…it wouldn’t matter which games they offered really because I think that the PS+ and ID theft protection package was enough.
Kev
Although I have had all the games on the list I tend to play them and then sell them quick to get the best price, so it will be nice to replay infamous at leisure and maybe another run through R&C.
I think Sony have done the well to offer something – they could have just kept their heads down and done nothing after all and we’d still keep playing.
JamesL007
I have to say that yes they have given us offers and discounts and lots of those games as a PS+ member myself. Again the list is clearly meant to be a wide base offering, I mean it ranges from Kid games to Mature and those in between. I have to say I know I have LBP GOTY and brought Dead Nation when it came out for discount and all, and Yes I had Infamous but traded it in for credit back in the day for a new game. I will say that along with the games they are offering a lot of content on top of it, I mean as a current PS+ member I get another 60 days tagged onto my subscription so that is good, along with the 12 month of ID clear stuff and all the contents for Home and the Rental movies for free on a weekend. Now yes I agree Warhawk should be on that list as it is a great game for all to enjoy and is addictive as they come.
Third party games to offer for free would have been a lot to do and with many developers now asking Sony too what they are gonna do to make it up to them as well for the outrage it could be they are trying all avenues and came up with this for now.
They have said they will be releasing more content for us over the months to come and with E3 right around the corner I would reason they are probably gonna announce something big for us on the Network again then.
Really you have to look at the whole picture and if you brought all those games, that is great all of them are great games with a lot to them too.
Plus remember all PS3 owners can get the PS3 and PSP games, I mean I know I am gonna do that as I am saving up money for the NGP myself here.
Snakefingers13
The most annoying thing about all this hasn’t been the downtime, it hasn’t been the Store being down for several weeks, it has been the people whining about how they aren’t getting recompensed enough. Sony aren’t obliged to offer anything.
So what if you missed out on a few weeks of Black Ops multiplayer? Go play through the campaign, or go play another game with a long single-player mode. Go beat Uncharted on Crushing. PSN isn’t the be-all and end-all for the PS3, though it’s certainly nice.
Sony’s discount is the fact that they don’t make you pay £40 a year for online access. They give you a perfectly functional service with the option to upgrade to some better perks and features. And they’re giving you at least 20 quid of stuff in return for the downtime. I’m grateful to Sony for offering this Welcome Back pack, and I intend to stick with them even as others defect to Microsoft.
Foxhound_Solid
Cool. Dead nation thanks.
meezy
I have them all except wipeout.. might grab some psp games tho