Reward programs exist to reward consumers for sticking to their service and actively using it; Steam, for instance, added its Points Shop, where making purchases gives you points to spend on that game’s various Steam cosmetics, like profile backgrounds, chat emotes, and more. Sony’s going to be doing something similar now.

　　Dubbed PlayStation Stars, the program is meant to launch later this year and is free to join; no additional payment’s required. Once in, players can expect to see various challenges that they can complete for various in-service rewards. One such case is their “Monthly Check-In,” which requires you to just play games on PS4 or PS5.

　　Other challenge types include winning tournaments via PlayStation Tournaments, earning specific trophies (like beating inFAMOUS Second Son as a Hero), or being the first in your timezone to obtain a Platinum trophy for a new game release. Those are just a few examples of things that challenge avid PlayStation users.

　　If you’re in PlayStation Stars, you have opportunities to earn reward points. These points can be traded for rewards, such as PSN Wallet funds, specific PlayStation Plus rewards, and more. On the topic of PlayStation Plus, all Plus subscribers will earn these points from making PlayStation Store purchases (like Steam does).

　　Finally, PlayStation debuts its new digital collectibles series. These are meant to be purely collectible, “as diverse as our line of products,” including digital figures of PlayStation characters, classic hardware, and devices integral to the company’s history. Something important is that these items are not tradeable in any capacity, differentiating them from the NFT scene.

　　In fact, PlayStation Vice President of Network Advertising Grace Chen told the Washington Post that the digital rewards aren't NFTs. “It’s definitely not NFTs. Definitely not. You can’t trade them or sell them. It is not leveraging any blockchain technologies and not NFTs,” Chen said. We’ll continue to update as more news relating to PlayStation Stars is released.