Sony’s got a new rewards program heading to market, called PlayStation Stars. The service, announced yesterday, will see players earning rewards for a few things, including buying and playing games. Based on what we can see, it looks like an amalgamation of some of Steam’s and Nintendo’s rewards initiatives, and Microsoft’s Rewards program for Xbox.
There are a few items that subscribers can get from the program, but one of these rewards involve “digital collectibles”. The name is a little scary, as is Sony’s follow-up description.
PlayStation Stars in its own show
Sony’s PlayStation Stars digital collectibles are “…digital representations of things that PlayStation fans enjoy”. That sounds suspiciously like NFTs, especially because “…[t]here will always be a new collectible to earn, an ultra rare collectible to strive for, or something surprising to collect just for fun”.
But Sony, speaking to Ars Technica, was quick to kill off that idea. A statement by Sony PR manager Aram Jabbari points out that while some collectibles will indeed be rare, none of them is one-of-a-kind. Additionally, Sony isn’t sticking anything onto a blockchain, a prime requirement for something to qualify as an NFT.
All reward, no risk?
So you’ll occasionally earn (or possibly redeem) a sort of digital collectible from Sony — like a trophy, but slightly different. What is the point of PlayStation Stars otherwise? Well, players can earn loyalty points via a variety of actions, like playing a game or earning specific trophies. There will be monthly challenges with a variety of goals that’ll allow you to earn points.
These points can be spent on a few things. It’ll be possible to redeem them for certain PlayStation Store products, or just PSN credit, if you’re feeling choosy. Titles and denominations aren’t known yet, just that this is how the mechanic works. Additionally (an idea cribbed from Steam), players who are PlayStation Plus subscribers will also earn points for everything they buy from the PlayStation Store.
There’s no launch date available for PlayStation Stars right now. All we know is that Sony will drop the new program a little later this year. Signing up will be free, but you’ll need to pay for PlayStation Plus in order to earn from your Store purchases. So there’s that.