Sonyâ€™s Apology With Free Content Turns Out to Be a Good One

Commander Fury · May 19, 2011

It’s been pretty much a month since the PSN has been down, but now it is finally coming to an end as it slowly gets back up to speed. This past week, online matchmaking has come back into the fray, leaving the Playstation Store, Qrocity, and Playstation Home left to get back into the mix. Once all is done, everyone will be entitled to some free games that they can keep forever. After reading the details, I think this is a much better welcome back than I anticipated.

When the “Welcome back” program was first announced, I was a bit hesitant about it having a few issues with the vague details that were made public. I believed that the free content would be a game, and a few other small items such as themes and avatars. That was far from the truth when it was announced that gamers get to choose two games to keep out of inFAMOUS, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Nation, Super Stardust HD, and Wipeout HD. Depending on what you end up choosing, you could potentially have $40 worth of content absolutely free.

I also took issue with the idea that everyone gets the free month of Playstation Plus, while existing members only get the free month and nothing else to give balance between those who pay for the service and those who choose the free route. Now that existing Playstation Plus subscribers get an additional 60 days of service on top of the month they get, I can say this is a good, fair deal for both parties.

With all of this in place, I’d say Sony is doing right after the fiasco that ensued after the Playstation Network was hacked. The fact that PS3 owners get 2 games, including disc-based releases, is quite generous alone. Add that to a free month of Playstation Plus and free 3 months if you’re already subscriber makes the deal a very good one for everyone. Hopefully this will help smooth things over with all of those who have been frustrated with the lack of online gaming.