PlayStation now has a loyalty programme - PlayStation Stars.
It's a multi-tiered scheme that is designed to make PlayStation console and service use more engaging for players, and is now available in Europe, Asia, the US, Canada, and South America.
But what is the PlayStation Stars programme and how can you get involved? Read on.
What is PlayStation Stars?
PlayStation Stars is a loyalty programme that Sony has introduced, letting PlayStation gamers sign up to earn rewards for completing challenges of various levels of complexity, as a way to engage further in playing games.
The scheme is separate from PlayStation Plus, Sony's multiplayer and online platform - you don't need to be paying for PlayStation Plus to qualify for PlayStation Stars, which is great. You will need to sign up your account, though, as there isn't any automatic enrolment at this point.
For now, there are no hardware limitations, so you don't even need a PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4 to join.
PlayStation Stars availability
PlayStation Stars has already launched in Europe, Asia (including Japan), North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. If you're in any of those areas you should check your PlayStation app to see if it's got a new section to explore and sign up to.
That should cover just about every region, but if you're not able to access it that might mean it won't come to your area immediately.
How to join PlayStation Stars
You can sign up for PlayStation Stars through the PlayStation app, where it has a new section.
You can also do so through the main PlayStation website, in case you'd rather do it on your desktop or laptop.
How do I earn rewards on PlayStation Stars?
Stars offers up regular challenges and missions to take part in, some of which are as simple as playing any game once per month. Others will be more involved, asking you to solve riddles to work out which games you have to play in which order, for example.
Completing missions can earn you a variety of rewards, which you can find out more about down below.
PlayStation says that new campaigns to take part in will be added to Stars pretty regularly, so you should have things to do all the time.
On top of that, you'll also be assigned one of four Status Levels based on how many games you own and how many trophies you've earned in them.
What PlayStations Stars rewards are there?
Sony has detailed three major types of rewards that are earnable through PlayStation Stars.
The first is the simplest - points that you can spend in the PlayStation Store to get small discounts on any games or DLC that you're buying.
The second is access to actual products in the PlayStation Store, including full games.
Finally, the third option consists of digital collectables, assets that are (to be clear) nothing to do with NFTs or blockchain technology. Rather, they're just cool little digital items that you can look at and enjoy based on your favourite PlayStation franchises.
You can display these in a section of the PlayStation app, but they're not tradeable or in any way redeemable, so they're just for you to privately enjoy and publicly show off.
How do I redeem my PlayStation Stars points for rewards?
PlayStation Stars is primarily accessed through the PlayStation app on your phone, although a console app will eventually follow.
You can check on your points total, and redeem it for rewards, by opening the app and following the steps below.
- In the PlayStation app, hit your profile
- Under that menu tap on PlayStation Stars
- Tap on Rewards Catalog
This will let you see all the rewards available to you.
If you're searching for more to do on your PlayStation 5, check out our list of the best games available on the beefy console.
What are PlayStation Stars
Finally, one quick clarification - PlayStation Stars is simply the name of the loyalty programme. That means you don't actually earn any currency or reward called "Stars", at this point.
Hopefully, that clears up some confusion!