Seems Like Sony's 'Welcome Back' Package Hit The Spot.

Sony desperately tried to claw back goodwill by announcing the PlayStation Network "Welcome Back" package, a plan involving a number of free games as way of apology for the inconvenience caused by the outage.

According to a report published by EEDAR's Jesse Divinch, the initiative was not only successful in "rekindling the activity and trust of PlayStation Network users", it also helped to boost game sales.

Unsurprisingly, all four of the titles offered as part of the "Welcome Back" package in the US ranked among the top 25 acquired titles during the first three weeks of the program. More precisely, inFamous ranked as June 2011's most acquired game across all platforms.

Sales rose too, with 17 percent of users indicating they bought a PlayStation Network title in June 2011, up from 13 percent in March 2011.

"While it may initially appear that the increase in downloads were due to the free offerings, a deeper analysis indicates otherwise," states the EEDAR report. "With the four Welcome Back titles removed, users indicated 15 percent of their purchases in June 2011 were PlayStation Network digital titles, compared to 13 percent in March. This positive trend... lends to the notion that consumers can be forgiving if a company is sincere and authentic with its consumers."

Of the consumers that acquired games in June 2011, the PlayStation 3 held a 44 percent share among across current-generation consoles, up from 40 percent prior to the PSN outage. Removing the "Welcome Back" package, the PlayStation 3's market share still increased by one percent from March 2011.

"While this increase in market share is small, the fact that the PlayStation 3 market share increased both with and without the free offerings indicates that the Welcome Back program likely boosted sales of other paid content, specifically those available either exclusively through download or those that had a physical or digital purchase options."