PlayStation Stars is kind of a mediocre loyalty program. It has a few functions. The first is unlocking digital collectibles that...suck. I don't really understand the point of them. These are mostly done by campaigns that challenge you to play a certain game within 90 days or get a specific trophy in a PS+ game or whatever. Essentially if you accomplish the challenge you get a model of some random asset related to some game, which you can view in the PlayStation app on your phone. Why does anyone want a 3D model of, like, the rabbit from Jumping Flash to look at on their phone? I don't know. I think this was launched during the NFT craze and they're sort of fake NFTs (they don't use the blockchain but they're like virtual collectibles I guess) but nobody talks about them and they're useless. They would have been much better off doing something like Nintendo's Platinum Points thing where you can buy art to assemble user icons for your account with. That system is legitimately cool, and since it's your online user icon you have incentive for wanting to collect cool stuff you can show others while you're playing. When Nintendo is outsmarting you in the online space you've clearly gone down a very bad path.

The second function of PlayStation Stars is to grant you special customer service priority if you reach the top level, which requires purchasing 4 games from PSN in a year and earning 128 rare (50% or less completion on PSN) trophies. Nobody knows what this priority customer support gets you and Sony customer support sucks in general so this is just a very weird and frankly deranged benefit. Giving someone priority customer support because they have a lot of "rare" TROPHIES is some next level stupidity. Fortunately it doesn't seem like this is really much of a benefit because the wait times are still awful and Sony customer support still won't actually do much to help you, as is their standard operating procedure.

The third function of PlayStation Stars, and the one I want to talk about now, is as a rewards program. You get "points" for either purchasing games on PSN or completing certain campaigns. These points can then be traded for more virtual collectibles (why?) or for digital games or PSN credit. The rough exchange rate is 5000 points for $20.00, and you get 10 points for every dollar you spend. So that means that each point is worth about 4/10ths of a cent, and you get 4 cents worth of points per buck spent. It's a 4% rebate program, and that's not amazing but it's not awful either. It's on par with some other companies' rewards programs.

Where it gets really stingy is in the "campaigns." So in addition to getting virtual collectibles for completing certain tasks you also can get point rewards. These generally give either 50 or 250 points, and if we do the dollar conversion we see that's either 20 cents or a buck. Now some of these tasks are kind of reasonable, like "Play one of the recent PS+ game releases." "We'll give you 20 cents to boot up Foamstars" isn't the most appealing offer but it's not insane either. It's fine.

Where it gets insane is that some of these are for purchasing full games, and they still only give 50 points. Keep in mind that you're already getting like 700+ points for buying a $70 game, but you get another 50. That's 20 cents worth of rebate. On a $70 purchase.

Who is actually influenced by this? Who is this for? It's just a deranged offer. Imagine a 20 cent coupon for a $70 item in the real world. It would just be confusing. And sometimes you have to pre-register for these campaigns, meaning you have to virtually clip this worthless coupon to get your insulting rebate.

I don't understand how this changes people's behavior. The fake NFTs are better because they're at least something semi-unique, even if they're just 3D models you view on your phone.

I know this isn't a big deal, but I look at the set of decisions that led to offering a 20 cent rebate on a $70 game and I have to ask whether anyone actually thought this through. It's just wild to me that huge companies with thousands of employees do weirdo stuff like this.

Honestly, I have gotten like two or three $20 PSN credits from Stars, so I don't mind it. Is it perfect, not at all, but since PS is my main platform of use, it has been nice getting $20 here and there for doing nothing more than I already would have done. With that said, the thing I HATE about the program the most is when there is a campaign saying if I buy "one of the following games, I get 50 points extra". The thing I absolutely HATE about it is I almost always have a game from that list, but I can't get the extra 50 points because I bought it twoish weeks before. I should get the extra credit for the purchase (especially since these are always new games, and not ones with heavy discounts).

@cubbielover: I second your thoughts on the program overall. But ya, getting screwed by buying a game right before it appears as a campaign sucks. I bought Rebirth day one and then days later they put out a 250 reward campaign and that was one of the games. Mega lame.

I’ll be honest, I noticed the stars on the PSN store or interface, tried to follow their explanation of what the stars were and did not come to any understanding of the program at all. They did not, at least at the time I first looked into it, make it clear what exactly they were or how to get them. This forum post has done more to explain the program for me.

It seems that it’s not really worth bothering with anyway, though. Especially for me, as I barely touch my PS5 anymore except for exclusives I’m interested in, which seem farther apart than they used to be. I even ended my PS plus subscription, which I had for nearly a decade, because this generation of consoles has not really had the juice for me. Doesn’t look like this stars program is worth spending more time on the console either.

@spacemanspiff00: I mean, yes, it is bullshit that they do this, and especially that they A) require you to register for the campaigns so even if you buy the game while the campaign is active you might not get the reward and B) often stagger the campaign so that it starts a week after a game launches meaning pre-orders and launch day purchases won't be eligible, but again we're talking about literally 20 cents (or for 250, which is less common, $1)

It's at most a $1 rebate on a $70 game. Not exactly going to strongly influence a purchase.

I've certainly never bought games just to get points. I've downloaded games on Plus that I don't intend to play just to get points in those campaigns. Its just unfortunate when it does line up and you're effectively punished for buying at the 'wrong time.' I'm also of the mind that they aren't required to provide a rewards program at all so I'm not gonna complain too much. The fact that its geared largely towards Plus members might be frustrating for some. However, it does makes sense that you would focus it towards the more loyal customers that are buying games in their ecosystem on a regular basis and buying Plus. Could be better, could be worse. Room for improvement and all that.

@spacemanspiff00: I agree that PlayStation doesn't HAVE to have a loyalty program and as I said I don't think Stars is too bad overall (4% is a reasonable rebate level.)

My issues with Stars are:

1) Locking enhanced customer service behind trophies is awful.

2) Virtual collectibles you can only see in your own phone app are the most worthless rewards imaginable.

3) The points campaigns for purchases are poorly done.

I'll throw in @tartyron's 4) The program is poorly explained and it's very bad that you need to use a phone app to manage it and can't just do it from a browser or even your console.

PlayStation Stars isn't bad at its core but there are things about it that are baffling.

Yeah, it's just pointless to me.

You mentioned the weird quirk that almost every perk is available to all Playstation players so long as they activate the myriad quests on the phone app most of which involve simply launching games old enough anybody who'd care enough to regularly check the Playstation app for new "quests" has probably either already played or long ago decided against said game(s)...

And I agree that is unquantifiably stupid.

Yet...This program did allow me to play FF VII Rebirth for free, and also redeem a $10 credit to give the Phantom Liberty spin on Cyberpunk the old college try for just $10 or so when it was all packaged in that Christmastime make-good deep discount, so...

As hilarious as I find it's general obtuseness, I did get to play two really interesting/enormous games for quite a tiny bit of coin by buying whatever games I did and occasionally, practically absent-mindedly opening the PS app on my phone to see what it might ask of me when I was between new toys.

Again, I can't stress enough that the program is implemented so poorly that it doesn't seem real...but it also doesn't seem to have any ill intentions. I'm sure it took years to build up the collateral to get FFVIIR2 and Phantom Liberty, and in some ways that didn't come cheap. But out of curiosity I took another look at my account and I could just get me some Balatro if I wanted, too.

Granular as the program is, I'd say it's equally beneficial. Perhaps on accident.