PlayStation Stars allows you to earn rewards for playing some video games, and possibly doing some video game-related activities. Given how loyalty programs usually work, these activities could involve things like subscribing to an email newsletter or logging onto your PlayStation console on a set date. Sony shared an example campaign called Hit Play/1994. For this campaign, PlayStation owners will have to launch games that match song-based cues.
The first rewards they unveiled are digital collectibles, and these were singled out as the highlights of the loyalty program. Sony is tugging at their fans’ nostalgia heartstrings here, so these collectibles highlight popular items from not only the PlayStation’s history, but Sony’s history in general.
So, the first digital collectibles Sony shared include
- a scene of PlayStation mascots Toro and Kuro around a cake
- the PocketStation, a PlayStation memory card with a battery, screen, and buttons, that could transfer saves between each other, and also play some mini-games.
- the original model of the PlayStation 3 console
- Punto the gondolier from Ape Escape 2
- Polygon Man, a character used in early PlayStation advertising. Polygon Man would also eventually be made the final boss of Sony’s platform fighter, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
- the Sony Chord Machine, which was not video game related at all–instead, it was a premium piece of vintage Sony technology from as far back as 1982. In this one device, Sony put together an analog drum machine, a chord generator, a cassette recorder, and AM/FM radio, all in a boombox-type package.
The Chord Machine is certainly a deep cut for Sony, and its inclusion as a collectible indicates that Sony views this program as a celebration of not just Sony, but the company in general. Don’t be surprised if future Stars collectibles dive, not only into Sony’s history of technology, but into Sony’s library of film, TV, and audio IP as well. That could include movies like Jumanji, Ghostbusters, and Men In Black, TV shows like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Crown, and Cobra Kai, and artists like DJ Khaled, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, and Britney Spears.
These collectibles seem to mainly be 3D polygon models, but it would not be unusual if future collectibles come in the form of audio clips or video clips, maybe even VR models. Sony revealed these collectibles will only be available through the PlayStation Stars loyalty program, and they will come in different levels of rarity. PlayStation Stars owners will get options to display their collectibles in a virtual display case. This will initially be available on the PlayStation App, and then get rolled out to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 respectively. The virtual display case will be made accessible via your PSN user profile, so other PSN users can open and view them.
There is a big elephant in the room that Sony has already addressed, but warrants discussing here. This digital collectible program definitely has a lot in common with NFTs. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital assets with unique identification codes and metadata. These assets make use of blockchain technology to keep them secure, and they have acquired a collectible status thanks to their popularity, tied into their sale and trade. Sony has made it clear that the PlayStation Stars collectibles are not NFTs. Users will not be able to sell or trade them, and they do not use blockchain technology at all.
As they are described, PlayStation Stars sounds like an extra layer of achievements that works on top of PlayStation’s trophies system. It’s an interesting program, that is probably intended to keep loyal PlayStation owners logged into their consoles and using them, if not push them to purchase other items from the PlayStation store.
Source: VideoGamesChronicle
