PlayStation Stars, the latest loyalty program for PlayStation buyers, is now live in the Americas, including the US.
You can sign up for the schedule for free on the PlayStation Stars website or the PlayStation app as extended as you have an adult account for the PlayStation Network.
The website alerts that you might be on a waitlist for up to two months, but that wasn’t the issue when we signed up a few hours ago.
Things seem a small buggy with PlayStation Stars so far. For instance, the app fails to load pages. And despite opening two games on my PS5, the campaign to play any game endured a long time to mark itself complete. Hopefully, Sony will steam out some of those issues soon.
You don’t think you’ll be funding all that much time into PlayStation Stars. The better rewards don’t seem like they’ll be worth the effort. But for PlayStation superfans or people who might already be playing many PlayStation games, the campaigns could be fun activities to earn some cute collectibles or points toward future purchases.
You won’t have to stay long to gain bonuses for playing and purchasing PlayStation games. Sony now states its PlayStation Stars loyalty program debuts in the Americas on October 5th, while Australians and Europeans will have credentials on October 13th. Stars are already engaged in Asia, including Japan. The program is free, although you will acquire some benefits if you’re a PlayStation Plus partner.
You have to access Stars via the PlayStation App on mobile devices if you like the “full” experience. However, you can sign up on the web, and Sony hopes to reach PlayStation consoles in the future.
You can enhance the number of rewards you earn by advancing through trophy- and buy-based status levels. However, you’ll have to pinnacle that up 13 months after the end of the calendar year when you achieve them. So, for example, if you reach level 2 this October, you’ll keep until January 31st, 2024, to do something growing that status.
The plan and its motivations aren’t renewed. But, as with Microsoft Points and Nintendo Gold Points, this gives you an incentive to keep returning to your console and spending money. It might be worth a try, given that it’s complimentary, even if you only sometimes fire up your PS5.
Once you’ve joined Stars, you’ll see a new icon near your profile avatar and name in the leftmost tab of the PlayStation app. Tap that icon to see your level, what campaigns and rewards are available, and what collectibles you already have.
Another campaign lets you earn 50 points for buying one of a selection of games on the PlayStation Store, like the gold points you can make on Nintendo’s e-Shop for purchasing games there. Issues can be put toward other digital collectibles, PlayStation Store credit, or even some games, like Cult of the Lamb, It Takes Two, and Hades.
You have to earn many points for the bigger prizes; $20 in store credit costs 5,000 points, while The Quarry, currently the most expensive reward, costs a whopping 17,500 points.
When you first checked out the program, you could participate in four campaigns requiring varying levels of effort. One required playing any PS4 or PS5 game to earn a digital collectible that you can display in a virtual display case, which you completed as soon as possible. One campaign asks me to play fighting games for a different collectible.
PlayStation Stars will also track your “level” for buying full games from the PlayStation Store and earning a certain number of unique trophies. Most levels offer more collectibles, but Level 4 gives you priority when chatting with PlayStation support. But to get to Level 4, you have to do a ridiculous amount of work; not only do you need to buy four games, but you also have to collect an eye-watering 128 trophies.
PlayStation Stars is also live in Asia and will launch in Europe and Australia on October 13th.