PlayStation's PSN outage reimbursement includes controversial free gift but only certain gamers qualify

Many gamers were expecting big things following a lengthy PlayStation Network (PSN) outage last week as previous similar incidents have resulted in free games for all those affected, but Sony's controversial gift has left many with a sour taste in their mouth.

Late last week there was an incident that left PSN - essentially every online service on your PS5 - down for an extended period of time, leaving gamers unable to play multiplayer titles, hop on to any PS+ games, or frankly use any online service on the console.

Some were left frustrated by PlayStation's lack of communication on the issue, as they only posted a single statement on social media that outlined the issue for 'some users', with many waiting for hours to see if the servers would come back online.

Most games, even those with predominantly single-player elements, have online components these days, and anyone who gets their library through the PlayStation Plus subscription service is also out of luck as you need to be online in order to verify the license.

There were even instances of players unable to pair external disk drives to their PS5 Pro, with X user @graham_brn detailing: "Given that my collection is physical, my PS5 Pro is effectively bricked until PSN is up again."

Thankfully around 24 hours later PSN services were restored, and the Ask PlayStation X account revealed what compensation gamers would be entitled to, as reported by the Mirror:

"We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for the patience," the statement reads. "All PlayStation Plus member will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service."

This is quite a contrast to previous instances of compensation, as the PS3 PSN hack famously offered players a number of games including Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, and God of War, among others.

On top of this, this reward is only eligible for existing PS+ subscribers, which leaves out a large number of players who were also affected without having paid for the subscription service.

One user on the r/PlayStation subreddit illustrated their frustration at being left out, expressing: "I don't have PS Plus but still couldn't play the games I wanted to, guess I'm a f****** second class citizen," with another comment adding "welcome to the club soldier."

Fortnite, for example, doesn't require players to have an active PS+ subscription in order to play online as it's a free-to-play game, yet it was still down thanks to the issues with PSN.

As an added insult, many players have taken issue with the fact that it's only five days - especially when PlayStation can effectively create as many free subscriptions as they like.

"Apology rejected in its entirety," one user remarks in the replies to the Ask PlayStation post. "We want games, not five free days."

"5 free days looks like you are making fun of us players," another adds, whereas others reiterate the desire for a free game of their choice from the large library of PlayStation first-party titles.

When looking at it from a monetary point of view, five days of the top 'Premium' tier of PS+ is equivalent to around $2.19 when working from the yearly price, or $3 from the monthly price.

This is just a fraction of what even an older game would cost, and many think that it would have been an adequate goodwill gesture for Sony to offer players, and have instead been left feeling like they've got the short end of the stick.

Other companies have somewhat picked up the slack though, as EA FC 25 has given players a 48-hour extension on certain objectives and in-game events that would have otherwise been impossible to complete when the network was down.