As part of their goodwill gesture for the PSN outages over the holidays, Sony announced plans to extend PS Plus subscribers' subscriptions by an extra 5 days. Additionally, they promised to give all PSN users, even those unaffected by the server connection issues, a 10% discount on an entire purchase.

While some agreed that Sony did not need to offer any goodwill gesture – as they were the victims of several DDoS attacks – the company’s move was welcome. However, it appears that Sony’s generosity has a limit, or at least its free discount does.

Today, Sony has revealed that the 10% cart discount will go live for PSN subscribers starting on January 23rd at 9am PST and will last until 9am PST on January 26th. However, once that window closes the discount will be gone.

No doubt the limits of the discount will raise a fervent discussion among the Sony subscriber base. Considering Sony never needed to offer a goodwill gesture, the discount is a nice bonus, but the weekend window is a curious decision nonetheless. If the goal was to encourage sales while rewarding patience, it’s a little strange not to at least give gamers more time to make a decision.

That isn’t the only limitation on the discount either; players will not be allowed to use the 10% to slash the price on PS Plus subscription, Music Unlimited, PS Now, or video rental purchases. So any plans to use the discount to re-up on one’s PS Plus subscription are now dashed. Given this new information, we’d bet that some PSN users will either use the discount to pick up a game (or a few games) while the rest will simply let it lapse.

Which is the real shame in all of this. Why Sony decided to put the limit on this discount is hard to understand, as all it does is encourage players to shop at their digital stores. Then again, having to deal with millions upon millions of coupon codes still floating around out there may be too much of a hassle.

So, whether you were affected by the outage or not, make sure to stop by the PSN store some time this weekend to see if anything catches your fancy. There are likely to be a few items worth the 10% discount, so no better time to pick them up than the present.

Are you happy with Sony’s 10% discount offer and 5-day extension? How do you feel about it only lasting over the weekend?

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Source: Sony