THANKS FOR NOTHING SONY

So, Sony finally revealed their amazing compensation package to their customers this week and at face value it might seem very generous.  One months free access to PSN+, a choice of two free games from a list of five for the PS3 and a list of four for PSP users.  There is also the hint of one years free access to an identity protection scheme.

All that is wonderful, I suppose, but it seems to be a cautious offer if you ask me.

First up the offer of the PSN+ one months free access to current and non PSN+ subscribers.  Well this is a flawed gift if you already have PSN+ because we have pretty much lost a months access to that anyway so it is not a gift but rather compensation for a service we have paid for and not had access to!  This was a great point that Chelle made to me yesterday that by the time the PSN will finally be back up, the 30 days will have all but been used up!  I suppose if you are none subscriber this seems like a great offer but again it's a bit of a kick in the teeth to those who have already forked out money for the service.

Then we come to the matter of the games.  This is where companies like Sony get really clever.  On the surface, it seems like an amazingly generous offer.  Two free games from a selection of titles, but there is the rub.  A selection of titles.  Make no mistake, Sony know all the games you play.  They have data (no doubt awaiting to be stolen at some point) on the number of consoles out there and the games being used on them.  Since, in this instance, PS3 users who do use their console online are not affected by the outage they don't factor into the equation.

From this, you can guarantee that the games offered will be ones that have sold well already, thus minimizing the effective loss on offering these free games.  It's very clever but an extremely back handed way of offering compensation.  To put it another way, what do you do if you already own the games on the list?  Download your free offer and trade in the one you already own so you can get an insultingly low price for it?  Gee, thanks Sony!  There is simply no reason that Sony cannot compensate customers properly by adding the cash equivalent via a code so you can add those funds to your PSN store wallet to use as you want to.  That should be how it is done, not some back handed offer of free games from a carefully selected list designed to do nothing more than minimize their financial exposure even more.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not going to turn this blog into a weekly bash at Sony, but for me video gaming is an important part of my life and the PS3 plays a huge role in that.  As a customer of Sony I think it only fair that I and all the other customers be treated fairly.  At the moment, all I see is a corporation looking minimize the effect this whole sorry affair will have on it's bottom line and that is something I don't think is right.