Sony Interactive Entertainment / Sam Machkovech
On Thursday, Sony Interactive Entertainment posted a surprising announcement about a new service coming to PlayStation consoles. Most of the details about the new “PlayStation Stars” initiative, which resembles the “rewards” benefits of other gaming services, sound promising, but at Ars Technica, Sony’s choice of a two-word phrase immediately sparked fear in our hearts: “digital collectibles.”
Fortunately, members of the SIE PR team were quick to draw with an email response to allay our fears: No, this isn’t Sony’s attempt at NFTs.
“They are not unique”
The new service, which launches “later this year,” will cost nothing to join and will exist outside of the PlayStation Plus subscription family. PlayStation Stars, as vaguely described in Sony’s announcement Thursday, revolves around a soup of connected concepts, but at first glance it actually resembles the Microsoft Rewards system in the modern Xbox family of consoles. The TL;DR version: Get digital rewards for playing video games.
PlayStation Stars members can play specific PlayStation console games to complete “campaigns” and “activities”, although only campaigns are detailed in Thursday’s announcement. These range from tasks as simple as playing a particular game in a particular month to more dedicated tasks such as collecting game-specific PlayStation trophies or even getting the first unlock of the hard-to-achieve “platinum” trophy from a game in a region the size of a time zone. As described, these campaigns may correlate with games associated with the PlayStation Plus service, just as Microsoft Rewards favors Xbox Game Pass titles.
When you complete campaigns and activities within PlayStation Stars, you can expect at least two types of ‘rewards’. The first described today, called “loyalty points”, can be spent on a “catalog” of digital offers, including credit for PlayStation Network purchases or redemption offers for “select” PSN products such as games. And I already mentioned the second reward type, called digital collectibles, which sounded suspiciously like NFTs in Sony’s initial announcement:
They are digital representations of things PlayStation fans enjoy, including statuettes of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that leverage Sony’s history of innovation. There will always be a new collectible to earn, an extremely rare collectible to aim for, or something surprising to collect just for fun.
In a statement emailed to Ars Technica, SIE Senior Public Relations Manager Aram Jabbari clarifies that this not NFTs. “These digital collectibles were created specifically for our loyalty program, and while some may be rare, they are not unique, nor are they [PlayStation Stars] make use of blockchain technology,” writes Jabbari.
So, as described, these digital collectibles can only seem like a more old-fashioned approach to the game world, where 3D cosmetic objects can be displayed after doing something unique or challenging in a video game without any financial system adding artificial scarcity. The PlayStation 5 pack-in video game Astro’s playroom already includes a similar system, as the game includes unlockable 3D models of older PlayStation hardware as secret in-game trinkets, no purchase required. (Speaking of PS5, Jabbari declined to clarify whether PlayStation Stars will work in all PlayStation console families or whether it will be locked on the newer PlayStation 5 console.)
Should We Expect “DylaNFTs” Soon?
Ars Technica readers may already be familiar with many, many, many, many, many NFT-related pitches from modern gaming companies. (A lot.)
SIE has been careful not to suggest concepts like NFTs or blockchain staking are coming to PlayStation consoles or services, but parent company Sony has found other ways to invest in the concepts. The biggest came in the form of a $1 billion investment in Epic Games, which Sony chairman Kenichiro Yoshida described at the time as an opportunity “to deepen our relationship on the metaverse front.” The statement also mentions other initiatives such as digital video production, which obscure the exact dollar-per-dollar equation of how much Sony invests in gaming-related blockchain content.
At least one other Sony division has been much bolder to link directly to NFTs as a commercial concept. In March, Sony Music teamed up with Bob Dylan’s son to create NFTs based on Dylan’s works, although at the time of writing the service in question does not suggest that such digital items (DylaNFTs?) will go on sale anytime soon.
