PlayStation has introduced PlayStation Stars, an all-new loyalty program.
Free to join and launching later this year, members of PlayStation Stars will be able to earn rewards by completing a variety of campaigns and activities, including a “monthly check-in” campaign in which players can receive rewards simply by playing any game.
PlayStation Stars members will also be able to receive rewards by winning tournaments, earning specific trophies, or even being the first player to platinum a blockbuster title in their local time zone.
Members of PlayStation Stars will also have opportunities to earn loyalty points, which can be redeemed in a catalog that “may” include PSN wallet funds and select PlayStation Store products. Additionally, PlayStation Plus members who are enrolled in PlayStation Stars will automatically earn points for purchases on the PlayStation Store.
A new type of reward for PlayStation Stars called “digital collectibles” has also been detailed by PlayStation.
Collectibles are as diverse as our portfolio of products and franchises. They are 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. There will always be a new collectible to earn, an ultra rare collectible to strive for, or something surprising to collect just for fun.
PlayStation Stars will be launched in phased regional rollouts later this year. The program is expected to “evolve over time.”
Source: PlayStation
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →Sounds awfully like NFTs, even if they don't say the word, and did not announce a marketplace /yet/.
"Play to earn"
There is one huge difference here between this and NFT/Play To Earn schemes
In both NFT/P2E -- they promise physical cash (or at least some mechanism to cash out). NFT/P2E bill themselves as mechanisms to make money - either by grinding out a paycheck or via investment value / appreciation. And then they have some sort of a exchange where you can cash out your in-game earnings for real, physical currency. (I would argue that Steam trading cards are NFTs as well, although one could also argue that NFTs need some crypto component for whatever reason and Steam lacks that)
Here, Sony may be offering up trophies, skins, collectables, etc... but they have always done that really. This is just a wider roll out. And there's no mechanism to cash them out -- so no Play to Earn or NFT cringe factor. Yeah, loyalty points -- but they've had that for a while too, it's just been obscure and hardly used... and it's able to be cashed out either - not really any different than getting a coupon in the mail or those grocery store loyalty rewards or something.
Just because you earn shop points instead of actual currency doesn't make it any less pay to earn. How bad are their games if they need this to make people play them?
Yet
If that does exist I'll be on the same bandwagon as you all, for sure. But I haven't seen any evidence of it yet.
It's no different than earning points / trophies in the current Achievements systems that have existed for years. I can't think of anyone being hugely incentivized to go out and farm achievement points just so they can save $5 on their next digital purchase...