Sony has officially announced a new rewards/loyalty program for avid PlayStation fans. Called PlayStation Stars, the service will be available later this year, free for all players to join. Sony Vice President Grace Chen officially introduced the PlayStation Stars service in a new post on the platform’s official blog.
After joining the PlayStation Stars program, members will be able to earn rewards simply by completing different campaigns and activities. There will be a Monthly Check-In campaign that requires players to simply play any game to receive a reward, relatively easy to complete provided you play games daily or weekly. Other, more complex campaigns involve players winning tournaments or obtaining specific trophies. There’s also the chance for you to snag rare ones, including being the first player to platinum a major title in your specific time zone.
The meat of the program is the loyalty points it offers. Members of PlayStation Stars will have many opportunities to earn loyalty points which can then be spent in numerous ways, including PlayStation Network wallet funds and select PlayStation Store products. Any purchases made through the PlayStation Store will also automatically earn PlayStation Stars members loyalty points.
The post also describes a new type of reward exclusive to PlayStation Stars called “digital collectibles.” These are, in essence, a variety of different digital representations from the PlayStation brand’s storied history, including figurines of the most iconic characters in the platform’s lineup. Some collectibles also represent the many hardware iterations of PlayStation throughout the years, and Sony iterates that “there will always be a new collectible to earn, an ultra rare collectible to strive for, or something surprising to collect just for fun.”
When questioned by another publication on these “digital collectibles,” Sony was quick to respond by saying that these are not in any way NFTs, nor are they connected to the blockchain.
“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,” Chen responds.
For those who want a bit more insight into what PlayStation Stars could bring, Nintendo is operating a similar rewards program for years now. We will likely see something similar to that for PlayStation, including exclusive merchandise and rewards only available through loyalty points.
