Sony Responds to Criticisms of PlayStation Network's 'Welcome Back' Lineup

Surely they should be letting the user pick what they want.  Essentially these are old games and most avid video gamers will have them.  I think it should be a case of ok here is the equivalent value pick what you want.  Sony are seriously treating gamers like its our fault for not appreciating this half assed attempt at an apology for this whole mess with some old titles.  

I hardly own any PSP games so this is pretty sweet for me!

Surely they should be letting the user pick what they want.  

They DO NOT have 77 million people on there network.

Infamous and Wideout HD, win-win.

People complaining about free gifts shows whats wrong with young society , its not even something to argue  when is given to you  for free you didn´t even pay for it,  PSN was down,  credit cards information was leaked (few cases most people information wasn´t even used) its a free service , I wonder what the reaction would´ve been is Sony didn´t gave anything ...

See all the people that are complaining this pathetic.  If I own the games then i should be compensated like everyone else? no? surely fair is fair and the best way to have done this was here is some monetary value do what you like.  I am not saying we are owed this but we sure as hell deserve something.  I can guarantee if you are one of the people telling everyone to stop whining about this below standard offer I pray your identity doesn't get stolen because we will then see what attitude and stance you will be taking with Sony.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion if it doesn't bother you great but don't have a go at the people who feel totally wronged or stressed by this situation.  If it does bother you  then that's entirely up to you too either way it was Sony's mistake and it  has put a lot of people at risk.

P.S. to own all these games already  hardly makes you a rich gamer with a crazy disposable income seriously what a crazy statement whoever that was :P

 credit cards information was leaked (few cases most people information wasn´t even used)

This list wouldn't be so bad had they not sold PS3's bundled with Infamous and LBP en mass. Why not just give us $50 PSN store credit and let buy whatever we want? That's sounds reasonable right?

I don't know how people think that Sony could've added many more PS3 games to the Welcome Back package available to download. First of all, they have to be available on the PSN - that cuts down the list drastically. Second of all they would have to be published by Sony, which again cuts down the list. Looking at what's left, that leaves only a few that Sony didn't include like MAG or Siren, both games which aren't very popular titles. inFamous, LBP and Wipeout (which is a BD game outside of America) were the best bets for being good for the widest audience. Sorry if you bought them already, but I honestly don't know what you expect them to do.

They are giving away FREE games plus thirty days of PSN plus for an online service thta is already FREE. Maybe they are not games everyone wants, but you lose nothing in return.

The people who are arguing that Sony doesn't need to give away anything or that people shouldn't complain about a sub-par selection of games are really irritating. Every company has a certain amount of goodwill that is actually calculated within financial documents that can impact their bottom line. When a massive security breach occurs that even hints at customer data being obtained, the goodwill amortisation will decrease, thus lowering their worth on their accounting sheets.

Sony understands this and as such, is offering a welcome back package for this reason. Unfortunately, their package isn't one of the better ones they could have offered so they aren't getting as much goodwill back as they possibly could have. The people who are accusing others of entitlement and general nonsense were never really in danger of not giving Sony back their goodwill, so in essence, Sony has only received a small amount of lost goodwill back (unfortunately, they will definitely not change the value on their sheet much thus their stockholders won't hold much against them).

This list wouldn't be so bad had they not sold PS3's bundled with Infamous and LBP en mass. Why not just give us $50 PSN store credit and let buy whatever we want? That's sounds reasonable right?

The people all over the various gaming communities calling people whiners, ungrateful, etc. are seriously driving me crazy right now.  I don't need or feel like I deserve free crap from Sony, but if they are going to offer a welcome back package, then it should absolutely benefit all users equally.  There really is no argument here.  And the fact that the one group of people that is not going to benefit from this is specifically the most loyal customers only makes it worse.

Yeah, how dare Sony offer us free stuff.

If you already own Infamous and are mad that Sony is 'stiffing' you, go get your free digital copy and sell your boxed copy.  Or be happy that you have a digital copy in case you ever misplace the disc.

@AlzoXP: Again just prooving my point , then I must point out to you where is the proof of thousands of PS3 users and their hack accounts , bank reports or identity  theft? I´ve only heard of a few and some of them not even valid enough , unless your a PS+ user you should not complaing for not having access to a free service besides is not only games but other rewards your getting but you should complaing right? because you deserved all that stuff for the pain and suffering Sony put you through

Pretend you're a corporate executive ... you need to respond to this crisis. Everybody loves free stuff and here is an oppotunity to give away "free" stuff "worth x dollars... you already know what games your user base owns or has played (trophies)... you know what the sles trends are for your games (you sold them) ... you know what recent/upcoming games you want to promote (marketing). 

And here is an ideal opportunity to build "good will" under the guise of doing such a wonderful thing for your user base - This isn't abouting welcoming people back, this is coporate sales and marketing at it's most strategic.  Hate the "free stuff" or hate the ingrates that don't benefit, it doesn't matter.  This is a cost/benefit analysis and has little to do with your satisfaction, it only concerns maximizing Sony's benefit at a minimal cost to Sony.

am i the only PS3 owner who isn't expecting or requiring anything from Sony for the outage? i never had any paid services from them, the outage was shitty, but they got hacked and it fucked shit up for sure, but i don't feel Sony owes me anything for it other fixing the issue and doing everything possible it doesn't happen again.

Now if you had paid services, as long as Sony extends your subscription for the correct time at no cost i think that should be good enough, its not like all of our PS3's were dead you could still play games just not online. So i think everyone should  be thankful PSN is back up and working and stop worrying about what we should get for free.

Anyone who thinks these games weren't chosen to minimalize further financial loss is naive. Why not offer consumers affected credit towards the purchase of the game of their choosing? I don't know many Sony fans who wouldn't own all of those games, if not a majority of them. Sony dropped the ball twice and pretty badly.

people are complaining about free retail / PSN store games? really? 

Let's be honest who didn't see this coming. There's nothing reasonable Sony could've done that wouldn't have somebody whinging about it.

People need to get over it. You are being given free games. I am sure the people who are bitching would be bitching no matter what.

People like to bitch. It is just a fact. Look at the internet, terabytes and terabytes of space are taken up with people bitching about things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

@trent82 said:

The people all over the various gaming communities calling people whiners, ungrateful, etc. are seriously driving me crazy right now.  I don't need or feel like I deserve free crap from Sony, but if they are going to offer a welcome back package, then it should absolutely benefit all users equally.  There really is no argument here.  And the fact that the one group of people that is not going to benefit from this is specifically the most loyal customers only makes it worse.

Hypothetically if a customer had purchased everything Sony ever put out before this there would be no way for Sony to offer them something free that they don't already have. So Sony did the next best thing thought up a list and said here pick two. There really is no better way to do this type of thing. The people that say we should have just been credited $20 to our wallet miss the fact that Sony can't legally do that across all territories (since PSN uses a cash value system and not make believe points)

The point is Sony couldn't please everyone and those few people that are gonna throw a fit are doing it because they feel entitled to special treatment above and beyond what everyone else is getting.

What, did people think we'd be getting new games? That would only put Sony in a bigger financial ditch.

So  i can choose one of these? That's pretty cool.

Thanks Sony. Now, when are you planning on contacting those affected by the intrusion? You know, the customers that trusted you with their information. Or are you still "looking into" the situation?

I own all the PS3 games, but I feel it's incredibly hard to complain about this. People were expecting one ten dollar game. I was hoping for two. The fact that someone can download LittleBigPlanet and Infamous for free is pretty crazy to me, and I'm happy for those people.

What an idiotic response. The problem isn't that I "don't want" these games, it's that I already have them! Justifying the choice with Metacritic is laughable. I KNOW these games are good, that's why I bought them in the first place!

Pretty much all the games they're offering can be found for about $9 at a store.

What an idiotic response. The problem isn't that I "don't want" these games, it's that I already have them! Justifying the choice with Metacritic is laughable. I KNOW these games are good, that's why I bought them in the first place!

people are complaining about free retail / PSN store games? really? 

What an idiotic response. The problem isn't that I "don't want" these games, it's that I already have them! Justifying the choice with Metacritic is laughable. I KNOW these games are good, that's why I bought them in the first place!

Those games aren't nearly enough to make me go back to the tre.

I'm honestly only pissed there's no RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER there.  C'mon Kaz, make it happen!

Seriously though, while a blanket credit to everyone's wallet would have been the best route, this isn't so bad.  I doubt they would have credited people 30 friggin' dollars, which is what Infamous by itself costs anyway.

Some people just weren't raise with manners, it's embarrassing to me as a gamer but "it takes all types to make a world", so they say!

@Punk1984 said:

@trent82 said:

The people all over the various gaming communities calling people whiners, ungrateful, etc. are seriously driving me crazy right now.  I don't need or feel like I deserve free crap from Sony, but if they are going to offer a welcome back package, then it should absolutely benefit all users equally.  There really is no argument here.  And the fact that the one group of people that is not going to benefit from this is specifically the most loyal customers only makes it worse.

Hypothetically if a customer had purchased everything Sony ever put out before this there would be no way for Sony to offer them something free that they don't already have. So Sony did the next best thing thought up a list and said here pick two. There really is no better way to do this type of thing. The people that say we should have just been credited $20 to our wallet miss the fact that Sony can't legally do that across all territories (since PSN uses a cash value system and not make believe points)

The point is Sony couldn't please everyone and those few people that are gonna throw a fit are doing it because they feel entitled to special treatment above and beyond what everyone else is getting.

My idea was that they should have looked at the games that were supposed to come out over the last month and the games that are about to come out over the next few weeks on PSN (anything in the $10 to $15 range).  Sony should have picked one of these games that looks like it has promise but will likely not sell very well.  Strike a deal with the developer to give them some cash so that the game can be given out to all customers for free for a week.  This way everybody gets a free game that they are guaranteed to not already own.  Sony makes nice.  And some lucky talented developers get a lot of exposure to their work and a much larger audience to market DLC to going forward.  That's what I thought would have made the most sense.And your stupid comment at the end just shows your lack of reading comprehension.  The vast majority of people complaining aren't asking for special treatment...they are asking for equal treatment.  Everybody else gets 2 free PS3 games and they don't.  This really isn't that hard to understand.  I swear some of you are going out of your way to be as daft as possible.

My reaction that there even has to be an article for this.

  

It is like every other freebie.  They are trying to save face by offering items for a limited time hoping that most forget to jump in to get it and they sure as hell won't extend the availability.  Hell I had a code to download PJ Shooter  and it was expired by 2 weeks and they would not honor or reissue it.  I understand it was not their fault but mine.  I contacted Amazon and they gave me a credit for 2x the price of the game.  Guess which company I hold to a higher esteem.

On top of that they had to reset the network when they came back online and forced everyone to change their password what the hell is going to happen when a large chunk of people start trying to download 2 disc sized games?