PlayStation Stars launched well over a year ago now, yet the feature continues to always falls under the radar, and for a pretty good reason.
It isn’t that helpful. In fact, a long time after its launch, it wasn’t until this writer saw WhatCulture Gaming’s Scott Tailford tweeting about it that they remembered it even exists.
I, for one, did not realise the PlayStation Stars/Points program has extended to being redeemable towards PS Store wallet funds overall, not just specific titles
PlayStation have done a TERRIBLE job making this known imo, but just got AC Mirage from Points alone pic.twitter.com/5ZTLylJ6Vq
— Scott Tailford (@SlashLP89) October 4, 2023
… And that was while using the PlayStation 5 heavily. The feature does not advertise itself much and there’s a good reason for that: it is tough to accrue points. You can get them by purchasing games online or by completing certain objectives. These objectives typically reward 50 points at a time, but mostly require you to play the monthly PS Plus games. It takes time for these points to accrue, especially when you consider that £5 store credit costs 1250 points. If you’re playing some of the required PS Plus games and purchasing games online, it does eventually stack up, but it either takes a lot of time or a fair chunk of change.
The other aspect to it, earning digital collectables (effectively some tags or icons), doesn’t seem to have taken off in any great way, or at least this writer has seldom seen them referenced elsewhere.
Another issue with it is that it’s tied to your phone via the PlayStation app, so when you are most engaged with your gaming you’re required to look elsewhere for it. This adds up to a lot of missed opportunities in terms of accruing points, which in itself is a chore even when you’re keeping a close eye on it. Some way of engaging away from mobile and actually on the consoles would help because gaming is about escaping into other worlds, not being forced to look at your main link to the real world.
PlayStation Stars offers are better than nothing… surely?
Yet this whole tone lacks context here because it is complaining about money for nothing. Sony could just not offer it; this writer didn’t spend a penny more than he intended to but ended up getting Sonic Colours Ultimate for about £3.50. Not the worst deal in the world.
It even has the advantage over Nintendo’s point system in that you do not need to spend further money to accrue points. You’ll likely have at least a basic PS Plus subscription, which will allow you to earn points through downloading one of the monthly titles.
It is slow and the whole thing feels very underwhelming when, as a consumer, you dream of getting lots for free or having your time spent rewarded in greater amounts. Yet, it is still something for nothing.
What does Sony want to get out of Stars?
This provokes the question of what Sony wants from the PlayStation Stars service. Do they want it to be a major part of their gaming experience, or a niche sideshow that a lot of people will just forget about? With it being tied to your phone, it is easy to suspect the latter. There is an advert for it on the console, low down on the PS Plus homepage, but it is hardly in a place that a lot of people will see.
This could be a longer experiment – to garner feedback and data on engagement from consumers – to inform something later down the line.
Half-baked stopgap or a promising start?
It doesn’t feel like an end product – it feels curiously half-formed. If it was promoted front and centre with access via the console then it might feel like a small but confident bonus feature, yet it remains subtle.
With it being free, complaints really cannot be had. Yet saying this has been some great addition to the PlayStation experience would be an utter pretence.
It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes from the feature in future, because at the moment it is just an awkward stopgap.
