PSN 2.0 and "Welcome Back" package

There is an update on EU PS Blog about the return of PSN service - PSN 2.0. Oh and yea, you will be forced to change your passwords when you return back online as I said on my previous entry. Besides that, you can only change your password on your own PS3 (where you activated you account) or through your verified email. Also, you will be able to download two free games of your choice from a list that they will provide for your PS3 and PSP (so if you have both PS3 and PSP, you can download 4 in total).The blog says that it will be different per region. If you are from North America, you might get different titles.

Update(6): PS Store will be up on June 2nd 2011.

Update(5): PS Store might be back early next week May 24th. It is confirmed that it will not be back on 24th.

Update(4): An official announcement was made in regards to "Welcome Back" package.

Like EU announcement, North America/South America will be given a choice between games and ability to download 2 games for free for both PS3 and PSP.

The games for PS3 are: LittleBigPlanet, Superstardust HD, Dead Nation, Wipeout HD+fury, and Infamous.
For PSP: LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, Pursuit Force, Killzone Liberation

In addition, North America will be getting free movie weekend on selected movies.

For PS Home, there will be 100 virtual item freebies and more to come up soon.

30 days free PS plus for the non subscribers and 60 days free for subscribers.

For Europe:
PSP recieves the same titles as North America. For PS3, they will be getting: LittleBigPlanet, Infamous, WipeOut HD +Fury, Ratchet and Clank: Quest For Booty, Dead Nation.

Here are links for gameplay videos:

Dead Nation : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-syxOHFqN0k

Infamous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drQO_Ya3ijc

LittleBigPLanet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGzOKbVC2r8

Super Stardust HD : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhhocl7jf3o

Wipeout : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGNbrQM5e54

Update(3): There will be an announcement made sometime tomorrow in regards to the "Welcome Back Package". 16th May. There will be multiple updates for PS store in a week once it is back up to catch up on the backlog.

Update(2): UK official PS blog made a link for the "Welcome Back" program. However it is still not up. No words yet what will be offered for North American users.
http://uk.playstation.com/welcomeback/

Update(1): EU official blog update in regards to PS3 and PSP free games upon PSN returning back online:

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/06/scee-identity-theft-protection-offering/

However, I think that North American PSN will offer the same thing. I think the games that we will see on the list are from a first party developer and those games were released ages ago. 30 days PS+ and four free games of your choice from a list? Hmm calculate how much that would be then multiplied by...the total amount of PSN registered users. Oh hell...

There is a rumour going around that there will be new features for the PS3 as well such as cross game chat (seriously, you already can do this with the chat in XMB why bother with voice since most of PS3 players got no mics) and in-game video-chat (interesting but I doubt it will be a new feature. PS3 does not have enough RAM  to do so. Running the XMB can be sluggish on some high resource hungry games). However, I am pretty satisfied of what the PS3 offers right now.

I just wish they  update the web browser (There is another rumour about that. PS3 might be getting a Google Chrome)

Sony is saying that PSN 2.0 will be much more efficient and secure. I do hope so. They put up so much defences that I hope it does not slow down the network or go through too many scans before going online. That would be a hassle. 

I am just tired of waiting. These guys from Sony Playstation are teasing us everyday. Part of getting users back again I guess. So maybe this week for sure it will be back up! Are you guys excited or what?

Oh yea, for those who has codes for PS store (redeemable codes for extra weapons/DLCs), you cannot claim or activate it since the PS store is not going to be part of the stage one restart of Playstation Network. It will be days or weeks later after PSN going back online they will decide to re-open the PS store.