UPDATE: Due to high traffic on PlayStation Store, you may encounter error messages or issues. We advise you to check back a little later and try again.
Note: In order to download two games at no cost, you must redeem them from the “Welcome Back” category. The individual titles are still available for purchase outside of the “Welcome Back Program”
If at any point you can’t find the ‘Welcome Back Free Game 1 or 2’ products, the list of available titles or a game you’ve selected, go to your XMB>PlayStation Network>Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotions to complete the process.
We’re so excited to welcome you back to PlayStation Network. With the PlayStation Store back online, we’ve been getting all caught up this week, having launched an abundance of amazing content for download on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable devices across games, movies, themes and DLC. Today, we’re excited to launch the Welcome Back program to thank you for your loyalty, and below, we’ve got what you need in order to get access to the included content. So, here’s a list of questions about the program. If you don’t see your question below, mention it in the comments and we’ll do our best to provide an answer. Thanks again for your patience and understanding as we restored the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services – your support has meant a lot to us and is greatly appreciated.
Q: What’s in the Welcome Back Program?
A: To start, all PSN members who had signed up before the outage (April 20, 2011) will be able to select two games for the PS3 system and two games for the PSP system.
For PS3 owners, go to the ‘Welcome Back’ section in the PlayStation Store, and select 2 titles from the following list:
- Dead Nation
- inFAMOUS
- LittleBigPlanet
- Super Stardust HD
- Wipeout HD + Fury
For PSP owners, go to the ‘Welcome Back’ section of PlayStation Store on your PSP system and select 2 titles from the following list:
- LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
- ModNation Racers
- Pursuit Force
- Killzone Liberation
Select your first game from “Game 1”, then return to the Welcome Back page and go to “Game 2” to select your second game out of the remaining choices available. This goes for both PS3 and PSP.
In addition, we’re giving access to our premium subscription service, PlayStation Plus, which includes games, huge discounts, exciting exclusives and added features like online storage and automatic downloads, to all PSN members for 30 days at no charge, requiring no long term commitment. As with the games above, go to the PlayStation Store and under the ‘Welcome Back’ section, select ‘PlayStation Plus: 30 Days Free’, and you’ll be given access to all of the benefits of PlayStation Plus. Note that this will not auto-renew and simply expires 30 days after activation.
Current Plus subscribers receive an extra 60 days added to their existing subscription at no charge. For current Plus subscribers, no action is needed as the 60 days are automatically added to your subscription.
PlayStation Network users will also get 100 virtual items in PlayStation Home as a show of appreciation for your patience while Home was inaccessible. Additional content is coming soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.
A selection of “On Us” movie rentals are currently available to PlayStation Network customers this weekend only, where Video Service is available.
Finally, current Music Unlimited Premium subscription members will receive an additional 30 days of premium subscription plus days lost due to the outage.
Q: When will I have access to the Welcome Back Program?
A: The content offered as part of the Welcome Back Program is available for download today and will be available through July 3.
Q: I have both PS3 and PSP. Does this mean I will get 4 games all together?
A: Yes, as long as you were a PSN member before April 20, 2011, you’ll be able to receive up to 4 games based on the titles listed above; 2 on each platform.
Q: Are there any limitations to the PS3 and PSP games we are receiving as part of the Welcome Back Program?
A: These games are yours to keep.
Q: How long do I have to get into the PlayStation Store and receive my content for Welcome Back?
A: Access to the Welcome Back content will be expiring on July 3. Once this date has passed, the Welcome Back section in the PlayStation Store will be removed.
Q: When does the 30 days of my PlayStation Plus access expire?
A: Your PlayStation Plus 30-day access will expire 30 days from the date you activated it in PlayStation Store.
Q: When will (insert game here) be published?
A: Look forward to posts over the coming days that will show what content will be available at that point, or coming soon. We’re planning frequent store publishes offering lots of new content for everyone to enjoy.
Q: I’m getting 30 days of access to PlayStation Plus; can you refresh my memory on what I get with this service?
A: From the time you activate your 30 days of PlayStation Plus, you’ll be able to download games and game related content, purchase select store items at a discount, and have access to the exclusive features of Plus. You’ll also be able to get early access to any Plus exclusive Demos and priority Beta invitations that might be scheduled during your 30 days.
Q: Do I get to keep the games in PlayStation Plus forever?
A: Content that is free in PlayStation Plus will not be available after your PlayStation Plus time has expired. However, if you decide to join PlayStation Plus, you’ll have access to all of the content you downloaded during your 30 day access for as long as you are a subscriber.
Q: Do I get to keep any games or content I purchased with the PlayStation Plus discount?
A: Yes. Any content you purchase at a discount is yours to keep, regardless of your subscription status.
Q: Aside from the games and discounts; does PlayStation Plus offer anything else?
A: Yes! PlayStation Plus includes the Online Storage for Game Saves feature, allowing you to backup treasured game saves or access them from another PS3 system as long as you are a subscriber. In addition, you get the Automatic Download feature, which automatically updates your 10 most recently played games while the system is in stand-by mode so you don’t have to wait for updates before playing your games.
Q: What content will be in PlayStation Plus when I activate my 30 days?
A: PlayStation Plus content and discounts are regularly updated throughout the month. For up-to-date information on content within PlayStation Plus, please visit the Plus homepage.
Q: Where can I find the Welcome Back content in Home?
A: The 100 virtual items can be found in the kiosk in Home’s Central Plaza along with two personal spaces – Dragon’s Lair and the Mansion Garage. A new game – Ooblag’s Alien Casino – will be released soon (June 2011). This game will be free-to-play. As an added bonus, players that access the Ooblag Alien Casino space will be rewarded an active item version of the Ooblag game that can be played in your personal space(s).
Q: How do I access the content in the Welcome Back Program?
A: Follow the steps below to access the content in the Welcome Back Program:
1. Log on to PlayStation®Store
2. Click on the “Welcome Back” tab in the upper left menu
3. Select “Welcome Back Free PS3™ Game 1”
4. Within the category, click on the “Welcome Back Free PS3™ Game 1” product and “Get Now”
5. Select your free PS3™ game*, and “Download”*
6. Repeat steps 3-5 with “Welcome Back Free PS3™ Game 2”
7. Go to the XMB™ to play your free games.
Q: I clicked on one of the Welcome Back Free PS3/PSP Game 1/2 selections, clicked “Get Now”, but no games showed up. Now that option is no longer selectable in the Store. Where is my game?
A: This is an issue we’re working on resolving, however for the time being, you can still get to that content by going to the XMB and under the PlayStation Network column, go to Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotion. You should be able to access the content in the option you selected here.
Q: Why am I getting errors saying I can’t access the Store?
A: Due to the surge of people going to the Store, you may experience some blocks in accessing certain areas of the store. Give it another try, or wait for a small period of time to avoid the rush.
Remember, if you didn’t see your question answered above, drop us a line below and we’ll do our best to answer it. Welcome Back!
Kaitlyn,
I have a severe problem. My brother was aware of the Playstation Welcome Back Reward Program and he downloaded infamous and little big planet. Me, on the other hand, had not been aware of his purchases, downloaded deadnation and little big planet. as you can see, we both have little big planet. Playstation did ot do anything to tell me that we had downloaded the same game so is there anything you can do because i really want super stardust hd please if anything can be done tell me please.
I download Dead Nation three times, but I can run the game after installation. Anybody else have this problem? And no, the Parental Control is not on.
Meant to say CAN’T run the game after installation.
smaller issue but still related. anyone else get Infamous, who had previously had the demo, an then lost or had your cole outfit from Home dissappear?..thats 4 items, the chest, legs, shoes and gloves. usually the main outfit id wear. i was under the impression id be gaining some itms..not losing ones id previously had. on the phone with customer service now.their response..try downloading the demo again. seemed fairly sincere. but then i remember some other posts saying that the outfit came with the demo for a limited time only..my original download date is 6/19/09..an they can verify that on my acct transactions. ..he said i should call back if the demo solution doesnt work, but theyre closed now an im tryin to think of what they could really do or suggest anyway..in my home wardrobe slot 1 i have the outfit saved on my avatar an u can see it, but everytime i load it hes just in a white t-shirt an blue jeans. anyone else have this bug/glitch an just not realize it yet?
well, im excited about this. :) n e 1 accepting friends requests?
Oh, and I also downloaded infamous. Is it one of those interactive games where you effect the world around you like red dead redemption?
im sleepy, good night
i download wipe out and after that i cant see it in games menu please help
i download wipe out but when i go to XMB menu wipe out is not there
@ AfghanyThug calm your stupit ass down, its not like they asked you the ?, get the f off this page talking sht your spose to try and help not make things worse idiot, grow up seems like your still in diapers, OH AND ANOTHER THING YOUR S/N SUCKS, I DONT THINK THERE IS ANY THUGS IN AFGAN LEFT FYI
@ASPEN3030, ADD ME!!
To people who are going into Manage Account->My Transactions to finish the downloads you started but didn’t finish… While you’re in the PlayStation Store, Go to “Downloads” in the top right corner and you can view and download everything you’ve purchased, or began downloading before. Saves a little time.
Also works for the Welcome Back games you chose.
some serious misdirection here..in a followup to my last post..about losing the cole outfit, i called them back today…30 mins on hold…an the lady told me that the bonus items or rewards from a 2 year old game demo they’re not responsible for, even tho its a sony exclusive title?…seemed kind of strange to me…she then suggested for further assistance than she could provide, that i talk with the SOE division an that they also ran the Home network. she transfers me, another 30 minutes on hold lol…an the guy then explains that the SOE division DOES NOT have anything to do with Home network whatsoever. but i get 45 days of everquest now. id rather just have my cole outfit i think. again..welcome back was suppose to provide us with MORE and FREE…instead im stuck with LOSS and CONFUSION. i know i wasnt the only one to get that outfit with the demo. so plz anyone with the same or similar issue let me an sony know.
sucks how i cant take advantage of the welcome back program just because i bought my ps3 few days after the outage i should also be able to get advantage of the welcome back program…
So I downloaded the slot for game 2 on my psp, then didn’t download the game, I went back to download a game, and i can’t, what do I do?
Has anyone else noticed the lack of PlayStation plus content since they redeemed their 30 day trial? Seems like there used to be a lot more benefits to being a plus member. I guess either I am wrong or PlayStation is jipping out most of the content to save money. After trying it out though…..I can’t see why I would ever pay for this stuff.
Ok. I only have a PSP and I have gotten the games. However I still can’t get the free 30 days of playstation plus. I’ve checked under the welcome back tab and I’ve checked through the account management. So I have no idea where else I can check. An accurate answer would be nice. One from Sony or from someone who has had this problem as well.
mine r downloading but its taking like 10 minutes a MB and i cant re try downloading cuz PSN timed out and it wont freakin work! what should i do?
@t3xasboy615 i cnt cuz psn on my ps3 keeps timin out
ps. how do i get the game downloads to go faster
@afghany thug besides it clearly states the blog is only for ppl who wont be a jerk. and my uncle kills taliban and alqiueda……i wont tell u what branch hes in
this is the error !! when I try to install the game !! (80029564)
@afghanythug by the way if i ever see u im not getting on a plane with u. ud blow the plane to smitherenes. pis* off taliban
Hi sony,
I have recently purchased a ps3 amd was disapointed that you are only offering free stuff to members who have an account prior to the 20th of april.
What are you thoughts about customers who had an account shorly after?
Could you check my account and get back to me please as id like to know.
Thanks
Hey folks,
first time posting here on behalf of my son. After trying all the methods mentioned here to access the free Welcome Back downloads, it seems that we have completely lost the first PS3 d/l. The other 3 were successful, but the very first attempt resulted in an error, and now even under the Service List>SCEA Promotion, it simply shows that there are NO remaining d/l. Note that the attempted d/l DOES NOT appear in the Transaction History as do the others. To the best of my knowledge, this d/l is completely lost. Is there any way to retrieve it, who should I contact, and how do I contact them without my complaint being lost among thousands of others?
Has anyone else encountered this problem? It seems to me that everyone else posting here has been able to resolve their issues through the XMB, but this method is useless in my particular case as there is absolutely NO trace of the d/l.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
“Paying consumer”
on behalf of RIP-opponent
I,sir have NOT resolved my problem through XMB, I cannot get to this XMB thing that you all are talking about. How come people reply to everyone elses problems except mine?
Do you need to have a PS3 to get the 30 days of Playstation Plus? I only have a PSP and the Plus subscription isn’t showing up in the Welcome Back tab.
What if you are unable to access a PS3 by july 3, but would still like to receive a game. Anyway you could reserve two games and then download them later? Promo codes, etc.
I think an important question is, do Playstation Plus members get a discount on Outland??
The free Playstation Plus does not show up in the welcome back tab. How do I get it????
Wow the PSP ones won’t pop up! Any advice?
So i’ve asked this twice and it’s hard to keep track of my post with these many comments but, does anyone know if we activate online game saves during the free 30 days of PS Plus, will we be able to retrieve those saves after the 30 days are up?
helppp withh this !! (80029564)
So wait a minute…those of us who bought our PS3’s in the midst of Sony’s screwup don’t get the Welcome Back Package??? That’s pretty messed up, considering I chose to stick with PS3 even after learning their security system was less than ideal…Xbox IS truly better.
It shouldn’t matter if you got the damn thing before April 20th or not: we’re still paying customers who bought a 400 dollar system, thinking everything would be good, Sony’s lack of an adequate security system is on THEM, and this should be available to EVERYBODY
I’ve seen the comments: they don’t HAVE to give us anything….WRONG! I’m only glad I didn’t have an account when the hack happened, I really feel sorry for you guys that did, especially since P2P websites are now posting the leaked accounts to be downloaded by anybody…here’s the link, Sony, fix this!
[DELETED]
you know what’s my favorite part of the welcome back program???
that dead nation, and wipeout ask for an UPGRADE when you finally install them =S
this made me very happy after hours and hours of waiting for the downloads to finish, when I was just ready to play the games, sony tells me “not to fast kiddo”
so I haven’t been able to play the games yet cuz I would have to spend another few hours downloading upgrades that are quite big before I can see any action; so thank you for that sony! you really think about everythin! keep up the good work!
@smike70: the welcome back package it’s only for the members affected due to the outage, and really affected members are those who have been playing for months and years on the psn. You were not a member before the outage so you were not affected, if you didn’t had an account before the outage it means you had to wait until the network was back online to create one so you were not missing something and therefore you don’t qualify for any compensation
@vinicioh22 : read above
@shisui16: of course you need to have a ps3! ps+ it’s an exclusive service for ps3; you cannot access it thru a psp. Maybe on Vita, but for psp it’s a no-no
@Rackeyblader : anything you save on the cloud service of the ps+ will remain there once your account expires, but no you cannot access it unless you renew your ps+ suscription. Cloud saving it’s an exclusive service for ps+ members only
@lokitos2011: that error code means the file it’s corrupted and you need to download it again. Maybe your internet connection had a problem while you were downloading the file which corrupted it. There’s no other way to fix it, you gotta download it again sorry
I downloaded infamous, but i can’t download any other game since i can’t see them on welcome back package, plz help !!!
@NewOlman: I thought so, it’s too bad though but they should highlight that so new users don’t use up space on the servers. Thanks
Alright, so here is MY PROBLEM that I’m having getting these “free” games. I’m trying to download my PSP games but I don’t have a wireless router and I live in a new area that is still in development so there are not many houses around and I can’t connect to the internet via wireless connection. I’m using the Media Go software to install content onto my PSP. I clicked on the “Free Game 1” icon but didn’t select a game. Learning my lesson from the first try, I was able to download the “Free Game 2” and thought that I could go back and get the first game again. I keep reading the same solution that people are posting: “If you did select the “Get Now” but did not select a game, go to the XMB and under the PlayStation Network column, go to Account Management>Transaction Management>Services List>SCEA Promotions and you should be able to select accordingly.” My problem is that I’m using the Media Go software and there’s no XMB, no Network Column, no Account Management, no Transaction Management, Yadda, yadda, yadda… Is there any way for me to get my game using the Media Go software? Somebody PLEASE help me.
Thanks in advance.
i have a ps3 and all it is letting me get is the free psp games and the pixel world theme. this SUCKS!
this is what happened: so i go to welcome back, and i add my 1st game to my cart. after that, i got this error code and it deleted the 1st game from my cart and took my ability to get either of my free games.
We were suppose to get the escalation map pack on COD for free right?
hi. i recently just bought a ps3 for the 2nd time. i was extremely disappointed when i bought my ps3 recently, it was during this shutdown thing. I had to wait just like everyone else and then was amazingly furious when i found out that i would not be receiving the welcome back package. I know many are going to respond that i can just recover my old account/s but i cannot since i recently moved and i had registered this/these account/s with an email that was with an internet company where you are given an email such as (insert name here)@comcast.net. When you move you are no longer able to use this email. I have been infuriated by this experience, as many have, but i thought they would make it up to me. This has not been the case. I am so disheartened by this event that i am almost to the point of returning my sony machines. Please if there is any way you could help me in this i would be eternally greatful.
btw jkirby1985 i completely agree with you and am also amazingly pi**** at sony for this act
@NewOlman also a little note for you, F**** off bro. It has affected us dumba** we didnt get to use our accounts either. UGHHHH people like you who pretend to know every little f***ing thing pi**es me off
@X17_Prince: Have you tried calling Sony to get your password reset? Try calling them if you no longer have access to your ISP given email account. (And perhaps maybe start using Hotmail/Live, GMail, Yahoo, or Inbox.com for stuff like this, that way you have access to the email account regardless of who your provider is).
I like the good will behind the welcome back program – but if you really honestly wanted everybody to be able to get two PS3 programs for free you would have provided a bigger selection – seems just like a big promo stunt where the accountants did the math to cause least amount of (additional) damage :(
For people that have the offered programs It is more frustrating to not get something out of this then if there would have been no welcome back program!
Sorry to you guys that do get a benefit for dissing this – but it is frustrating that Sony dosn’t even comment on any of “these” type of messages!!!
Playstation Plus 30 day free doesn’t show up what should i do?
How do you allow sub-accounts access to the PlayStationPlus? I downloaded it under the main account and it is not visible to other users. I’ve searched all of the menus and don’t see a switch to enable this.
I bought the free game voucher but didn’t choose a title and now it doesn’t appear on the welcome back package anymore.
I read the instructions at the top of the page and was able to pick my selection.
People need to learn to read carefully.