A new customer loyalty programme has been announced by Sony. Called PlayStation Stars, it’ll launch later this year. All PlayStation owners will have access to it, but subscribers to PlayStation Plus will receive additional benefits.
It’s pretty much like Xbox Rewards. You’ll acquire points by logging on and completing certain activities. These can then be redeemed for PSN funds and PlayStation Store products. PlayStation Plus subscribers will also earn points on purchases made through the Store.
Some activities will also reward players with “digital collectibles”. Sony describes these as “digital representations of things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation”. Sony was then quick to let players know that the “digital collectibles” will never be tradable, with PlayStation’s Grace Chen stating: “It’s definitely not NFTs. Definitely not. You can’t trade them or sell them. It is not leveraging any blockchain technologies and definitely not NFTs.”
At this stage, it sounds like points will be relatively easy to get. A monthly check-in will grant a healthy dose of points for simply playing a game each month. There will also be more difficult challenges, such as winning tournaments. Then there’s my personal favourite points for earning PlayStation Trophies! There will even be one for being “the first player to platinum a blockbuster title in your local time zone”.
All of this sounds great for PlayStation users and there won’t be any rewards for using Bing, which is a double bonus (Microsoft, stop trying to make Bing happen, it’s not going to happen).