PlayStation Network Welcome Back Program Now Available, Brings Free Games, Movie Rentals And More

Remember the Welcome Back package Sony promised us by way of saying thank you for sticking by the beleaguered platform during the PSN downtime of the last few weeks? Now that the company has finally managed to bring its PSN Store back online, they’ve also announced just how this package works and more importantly, your free content can be downloaded right now if you can cope with the many error codes currently being thrown up by the service while it attempts to deal with a few million people hitting it at once.

So what’s this Welcome Back package all about? Well, in its simplest form, each user will be able to download two PS3/PSP games from a list provided by Sony. What’s on this list depends on your particular region, but be warned before you get all excited – the list’s not what we’d call inspiring.

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 and two games for the PSP systems.

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

Users will also get a free 30 days worth of PlayStation Plus which in itself brings with it free games to play, though they are only available as long as the subscription is active in typical PlayStation Plus fashion. Thankfully the subscription will not auto-renew should you decide the service isn’t worth the fee.

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Already an existing Plus subscriber?

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.

For the movie buffs out there Sony are also offering a selection of ‘On Us’ movie rentals for this coming weekend too.

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.

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In order to clear up any confusion (what’s not to be confused about with Sony these days?) Sony has posted a Q&A of sorts on its US PlayStation blog for users to ponder over, and it’s well worth a read if you’re a little fuzzy on some of the Welcome Back details.

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