Sony ‘Welcomes Back’ PSN customers with free games

After all that’s happened recently with the Playstation Network outage, Sony had restored some services, and now they’re doing something else for customers. Today Sony announced details about its “Welcome Back” appreciation program for customers in North American and Europe.

As a big thank you from Sony, all existing registered PlayStation Network and Qriocity users in the US, Canada, AE, AU, GB, IE and NZ will have access to two free PS3 games and two PSP games after the PSN is restored. They can be kept forever and you will have 30 days to get them.

The PS3 games for North America include Dead Nation, inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD, and Wipeout HD + Fury, while the PSP games include LittleBigPlanet (PSP), ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force, and Killzone Liberation.

The games for Europe will be the same except for instead of Super Stardust HD, gamers will have the choice of Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty.

The games for Mexico seem to be the same as for North America, while the rest of the Latin America is still unknown

Thanks for the welcome Sony! Time to catch up on some gaming!

SOE’s “Welcome Back” Package Detailed, Includes Lots of Freebies

Sony`s restoration of their PlayStation Network, Qriocity and other online services are now in full swing, with the network coming back online in chunks around the globe. Sony Online Entertainment, the group behind many MMOs including DC Universe Online and Free Realms, had stated earlier they were creating a “make good” plan for subscribers to make up for all this lost play time. The plan has now been detailed, and is available after the jump.

Recently spotted on the security update page on SOE’s official site, the entire plan consists of these goodies:

• DC Universe™ Online: Batman™ and Two-Face™ Inspired Masks and 30 Marks of Distinction
• Free Realms®: Free daily items (7 to collect)
• Clone Wars Adventures™: Count Dooku v2 Outfit
• EverQuest®: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Rare Mob Spawns and Double Faction Gains
• EverQuest II and EverQuest II Extended: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Guild XP, Loot Bonanza, and City Festivals
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®: A series of Double XP events
• Star Wars Galaxies™: Bounty Hunter Statue, a miniature model of Boba Fett’s ship, the Slave I™
• Magic: The Gathering – Tactics™: Four of each of these spells: “Ivory Mask”, “Duress” and “Angelheart Vial”, plus 500 Station Cash
• PoxNora®: Limited edition Carrionling, Welcome Back 5K Gold Award Tournaments and two Draft Tournaments, plus 500 Station Cash

While most of that concerns PC players, the benefits for DC Universe Online and Free Realms are going to be extended to PlayStation 3 gamers as well. In addition, lifetime members will receive 20,000 coins for Free Realms, and 10 Marks of Distinction for DC Universe Online. Perhaps the biggest freebie is one that is not listed above – “all impacted players will receive 30 days of game time added to the end of the current billing cycle in addition to one day for each day the system is down.” SOE customers will also have the same identity theft protection enrollment offered to them as was detailed on the PS.Blog. No word on when the system will be up, exactly, but considering SOE’s network has been down since May 2nd, that is 43 days of free online play accumulated so far.

Normal PlayStation users will also be treated to a “Welcome Back” package filled with free games and a PS+ subscription once the PlayStation Store is back