Reply To: PSN Outage 2011

Users who log in to the PlayStation Network this morning were happy to know that their PlayStation “Welcome Back” benefits have been activated, just a short period after the return of the PlayStation Store. Given the high traffic of the Store at the moment however, patience is required, or you may lose your benefits due to simple computing error.

As a first hand loss occurred on my part, understanding that patience is key during this process may be the only way to fully redeem your benefits. If you’re like myself, you’ve likely clicked, re-clicked, and aggressively refreshed your websites if they aren’t responding due to server lag. Doing so on the PlayStation Network during this interesting download process will result in the loss of your redemption entirely.

Redeeming your two free titles for each platform on the PlayStation Network requires that you first redeem either Free Pass 1 or Free Pass 2 for the respective platform. After redeeming the pass, you are routed back to your titles list with which you can select what title you were interested in. Clicking on any of these redeem buttons during a very high traffic time (mostly today and tomorrow, presumably) will result in an error code. This is fine, but requires you attempt to download your title again. If you receive no error and click the redemption button again for either of your free passes however, you will not be routed to the download page, and this download will then disappear forever.

The five titles available for download in the Free Pass 1 category are in an entirely separate download category from the Free Pass 2 area, which are further separated from the original downloads for these titles. This also means that you could, in theory, pick up the same title twice for free – wasting away a redemption.

So what do we do when this goes on? Sony Responds:

“Q: I no longer have the option to choose my free Welcome Back games. What can I do?
A:
1. On your PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Portable navigate to the PlayStation Network icon on the XMB
2. Log into your PlayStation Network account and choose Account Management > Transaction Management > Services List
3. Choose “PlayStation Network Promotions” from the list of services displayed
4. Select either “PS3 Free Games” or “PSP Free Games” and then choose “Select Content””

Be sure to be careful on your way through the Welcome Back Program this weekend, as the traffic is high, and if you’re interested in benefiting in the best way you can for the month-long wait for your free online services, you’ll want to be chill on the X button when you hit the network.