Sony Respond To "Welcome Back Programme" Complaints

Sony Respond To “Welcome Back Programme” Complaints

Posted by Adam Cook on May 17, 2011 in News · 3 Comments

If you didn’t know, Sony have recently announced their plans for the welcome back programme, and some gamers aren’t too happy with the choices on offer.

Well, Nick Caplin (Head of Communications, SCEE) has responded to some of the complaints, saying:

“I’m really sorry that there is nothing there that you want. We’ve tried really hard to put together a list of high quality BD games, rather than simply offering cheaper PSN titles. The average metacritic rating for these games is over 84%, so these are high quality games. Unfortunately with a user base of 77m people, it is really hard to offer something for everyone.”

He also went on to confirm that if you own both a PlayStation 3 and a PSP, you’ll get 2 games for each system.

“You’ll get two games for each platform.”

What do you think about the Welcome Back Programme? Tell us your feelings on Twitter, Facebook, or on our forums!

Tags: nick caplin, PS3, psn, SCEE, Sony

Adam Cook

Hi there people! I am the UK Editor for GodisaGeek. I love my music, and spent many a years learning multiple instruments, but my first love is Guitar.

Games wise, I'll play pretty much anything but if you ask me about MMORPG's I may end up with a blank face, as I know nothing about the scary world that they inhabit. I'm a Bolton fan too, though Football isn't the sport it was when I was growing up, sadly.

If you'd like to contact me with anything site related, or if you'd like us to review your game, then please do so at Adam[at]Godisageek.com. Other than that, you'll probably find me tweeting, I'm @jebusf over on that there Twitter.

http://twitter.com/leemeadowcroft Lee Meadowcroft
Like others I’m a little disappointed by what’s on offer. Dead Nation I will take because I was tempted by that any way. The others I have either played already or am not interested in. I suspect Sony knew this anyway when putting the game list together. They’re correct in saying it is difficult to please 77M people but I would rather them give no free games away than those they have offered.
What I would like to see instead is a statement of commitment to improving the service with things that the community have been asking for for a long time e.g. an improved web browser, voice chat, filters for your friends list etc. No amount of free games will help regain the trust of the user base but a statement of intent about the future direction of the PSN will.
http://twitter.com/Rage06 RaY
Great post there Lee, about the web browser; Sony have been looking to improve it for a while now. They had a meeting with Mozilla some time ago and latest rumors suggest that Sony might Use Google Chrome as their Browser. Think this might happen as they have struck a relationship between Google recently with the Android OS being in their TBR handheld NGP
Paying customer
Im done with Sony! I
saw this topic and had to sign up to express my dismay with them. Under
Sony’s watch, my account got hacked and the network was down for a
month. They attempted to make up for it with the Welcome back program
which consisted of 2PS3 and 2PSP games and a limited time free PS Plus
subscription. I thought this was a very smart move by Sony as a way of
saying sorry to their loyal customers. I immediately tried to download
my free games but constantly got error messages and it seemed like my
PS3 was freezing up. I waited like a week for traffic to slow down then I
managed to download Dead Nation. My kids spend the summer with me, and I
waited as usual till after July 4th for them to arrive, and I had free
games for them to choose from a list of I think 5 free downloadable
games. Well when I went to find the offer in my PS Network, it was no
longer there, so I went to the original email and double checked it for
any indication of an expiration date…nothing there. I then began to
search the web for any info, and after some time searching I came across
a few pages indicating July 4th cutoff with another day extension. My
problem is that in the original Welcome Back offer email, there was
NOTHING to indicate that you had to act right away or forever lose your
free Welcome back offer. The majority of people this pertains to are
kids, and its not fair to boldly state the release date of Uncharted 3
all over the net, even on Amazon, but the expiration date of the welcome
back offer is done so inconspicuously. I called Sony customer support,
and they basically said to me as professionally as possible that Im
screwed and they cant do anything about it, and that to be a member of
PSN you have to be at least 18. Like really Sony? Who is policing the
network asking for ages? That’s all irrelevant anyway. This was a bait
and switch tactic in my opinion. It seems like sony doesnt care that
much about its loyal customers over 18 who actually buy their over
priced products. This was all a stunt to make everyone sign up to PSN
Plus. Im so disappointed in sony, and I feel like a sucker. I spend a
small fortune on their XBR tv, on their soundbar, and another fortune on
the early fat PS3. I hope someone puts together a class action lawsuit,
or enough of us spending our hard earned money speak up aobut this
deceit that Sony uses to get customers. I got hacked, was promised free
games, and when I was ready for them, they werent there. Sony did
nothing special for me at all other than take my money and say sorry
they are unable to help me. Mind you I spoke to a manager/superviser at
sony and I was as professional as possible. They are truly disgusting
tyrants who swindle kids as well as parents who they know arent that
tech savy as the kids who are doing all the online networking. A simple
resolution is to extend the offer for another 30 days due to lack of
properly informing its customers that the offer expired that quickly.
What a shame Sony.