PS Stars Program Marks Its Eventual Shut Down with One Last Collectible

Probably would've got a lot more attention if it had been integrated into the playstation system rather than having to go through your phone. I mean I was interested in the concept, but never really got interest it because of that.

Yeah I already grabbed, but oh man it is a shame that stars ends...

"We've noticed people were getting too much free money so we're shutting it down."

Xbox (to a large degree) and PlayStation culling their reward schemes is nothing less than greed. It costs the company so little given, especially in PS’s case, you only earn by spending.

Really sad and corporate focused decision making. Do better PlayStation, do better.

It would've been better if it was implemented into PSN and not just the phone, but also if it didn't basically cater only to people who buy digitally. I have gotten points over time, but nowhere near as many as if it was something closer to Microsoft Rewards and not focused a lot on digital only.

I will have gotten either $15 or $20 (I don't remember which off hand) out of it when all is said and done, so it wasn't completely worthless, but the program was still a big disappointment.

Hate it see it go! I grabbed a decent amount of £5 gifts on there. PlayStation needs some sort of rewards program in the future.

@itsfoz

especially in PS’s case, you only earn by spending.

Bar the campaigns they run every single month that gives you points for playing particular games...

I loved it. I easily bought enough digitally to earn upwards of $100 in store credit or more just for buying and playing like I normally did. It’s a shame it basically died like the vita. Bad strategy and lack of interest.

This is so cool that they actually did this, and they made it a mythic.

@Ken_Kaniff How can you not see this for the utterly cynical and corporate tug on the heartstrings from the that this clearly is?

Why did they make it look like a primogem?

Sad to see it go for everyone. Just crazy how much money Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo make and we get robbed of a few rewards here and there.

Glad it’s gone. Never used it, never wanted to, avoided it like the plague.

The idea is totally fine—the implementation was a spectacular failure. I’ve had my account almost since launch, and it’s perfect. All 100%+Platinums, all the way down. The way many of these collectible icons were obtained is in direct opposition to the trophy hunter completionist mentality. I’m not starting some random crap game for a few hours to get a collectible and then staining my account with a game that I either can’t get the trophies for or would take countless hours of time to 100%, especially if it’s garbage I would never ordinarily play. Couple that with the limited time nature of these fomo collectibles and the fact you evidently can’t delete them from your account and it’s the digital equivalent of a poorly inked tattoo. It’s ugly, it’s not worth it, and now you’re stuck with it forever.

I am ecstatic it was removed from the PS app—I use it all the time and was terrified I would accidentally hit that little flashing icon placed so precariously close to the trophy button. I breathe easier now that it got the ax.

Also, I can’t help but point out the extreme obviousness of the fact that none of this would even be an issue if platform holders gave us the option to PERMANENTLY ERASE GAMES WITH PARTIALLY COMPLETED TROPHY PERCENTAGES FROM OUR ACCOUNTS . I’m not talking about that generic ‘hide’ option that doesn’t actually remove them; I mean eradicate them from existence. There is no legitimate reason why we’re restricted to being able to delete games we’ve started but obtained 0% trophy completion, but not allowed to do the same and delete games at 1%-99% trophy completion.

Total greed by Playstation.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good loyalty program. If you engaged with it, it gave you an incentive to revisit older titles to earn coins or collectibles, and if you couldn’t be bothered, you still earned coins for purchases. As with all loyalty programs, the aim wasn’t to give money away, but to tweak customer behavior by getting people to spend just a little more. My guess is that they couldn’t move the needle enough, so it’s back to the drawing board.

I’ll miss having the odd £5 every so often and spending it in the sales 🙁

@Lowdefal I agree, it’s absolutely ridiculous. Imagine missing out on a game you really want to play because you’ve noticed one trophy that might be unobtainable.

@Balaam_ Alternate take: I cared not a whit for “digital collectibles” but I did get about $40 or so in credits from the program.

Well worth it, in my book. I won’t even touch the trophy thing because that way lies madness, but to each their own!

@Balaam_ I couldn't give the slightest toss about digital collectibles, but what do you have against free money?

@itsfoz Nintendo done the same by removing the Gold points.

Very annoyed and sad to see it go as i got a lot of free credit from it most likely in the 100's.

@Balaam_ Your glad to see it free money go? Interesting stance.

@Marquez that used to cheese me off no end as well, why they couldn't be applied to already purchased titles I don't know. Another reason to not buy at release!

Eat 💩 and keep your worthless collectibles! At least I was able to pay for Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots with points I racked up over the past year. They better come with something worthwhile. But I do have my doubts.

I’m 100 points off a fiver. I’ll probably never get it.

@Lowdefal Thank you so much! Saved me a job. I've never heard games sound so unappealing as the way @balaam describes playing. To platinum every game you've ever played is ridiculous levels of time wasting shittery!

@MrPeanutbutterz Dude I didn't expect them to do anything, so im pleasantly surprised. PS Stars was never going to last with Sony owning the market unfortunately.

With Nintendo getting rid of its gold points Xbox is now the only place you can earn rewards for money off.

@Balaam_ You're glad that they've gotten rid of something that actually rewarded people with a little saving on purchases here and there because of some silly trinkets that were entirely ignorable? They only ever appeared on the app.

@Lowdefal well said..I wish I could have said what you just said but I lack the eloquence sometimes and tend to use the sledgehammer instead.

Over the years I've managed to obtain quite a fair bit of cash from the stars program. I'll admit that recently I've been using it as an alternative to chat via psn because it's just easier to navigate on a phone rather than pausing your game to reply..plus I have a mobile phone holder on my racing rig which is incredibly sad but it is what it is 😂

@Lowdefal "The absurd thing is you are moaning about your hunt for frivolous collectibles being ruined by...a hunt for frivolous collectibles." I particularly liked this bit of delicious irony...

@Balaam_ For what it's worth, I agree that they should let us delete these old games off the trophy list.
I'm not a trophy hunter but I also think that if you are going to have a trophy system then they should make it user friendly.

This last collectible will make me enormously proud. I will sit there in front of my TV (the PS Portal screen is just not big enough for this) for a couple of minutes and watch this „Mystic“ PNG with a deep feeling of humility and being one with the universe. And I will show it every guest on my next birthday party. I can’t wait to see their reactions!

@Balaam_

"...was terrified I would accidentally hit that little flashing icon placed so precariously close to the trophy button"

Eh? Just because you 'accidentally' hit the Stars button on your phone doesn't somehow automatically start up a game on your console and pop a trophy that you didn't want.

In any case, I'm also a trophy hunter who cares about my 100%s, but Stars was never a problem for this. It mostly only ever required you to start a game, get to the title screen and then back out. I did this loads of times, got the reward, and then deleted the 0% game from my trophy list. What was the problem with this?

@Balaam_ I can't imagine playing or trying a game on the basis that if I am gonna platinum it 100% for sure...

First of all, I respect the thought, even I admire it, but seems like the point where the hobby becomes an obligation...

I love platinums but i am not a trophy hunter, I have 108, maybe that's why i don't understand, but man.... being not able to play some great games with ***** platinums, or playing an old game with online not obtainable trophies, or just trying a game because you dont know if you will like it sounds harsh

If I remember correctly, wasn't PS Stars created with assets from some NFT ***** Sony scrapped?

Stars was okey, low effort and some nice rewards, never understood why it wasn't implemented on consoles. Oogling the collectibles for a minute each months will be missed I guess, because there where a few fun ones

@Lowdefal Damn bro. Preach. I like hunting the odd Platinum but I believe that to be a mental disease on my part

I will not miss downloading games I don't want to play for forty cents USD. Or missing out on points because I bought a game at launch rather than week 3. At the same time, it's a shame that Sony can't find a way to reward regular users of its overpriced app store

@Nepp67 Nail. Right. In. The. Head.

Still find this whole thing very odd. Feels like an idea which 3 years in never got out of its trial run. Digital collectibles I could live without, but the points were a nice little bonus, and did make me use the PS Store perhaps more than I would have otherwise. Their loss I guess.
What with my local GAME store shutting down end of August, guess I’ll have to rely on my Nectar points in Argos for my occasional video game discounts now. Very peculiar times.

Tells you a lot about how popular the service was when this entire topic got derailed into arguing about trophy hunting with rando internet edgelords...

I for once will miss the service. Managed to snatch my last redeemable points with DS2 pre-order - I got a total of 55$ out of it through these 3 years (also I've always been level 4 which helped with this internal validation I've been chasing all my life ). But the system was poorly implemented. As @Bramble wrote, I believe this was a remnant from some NFT BS that Sony planned but got quite the backlash for. Never cared about the collectibles, like in what scenario am I going to whip out my phone and show my "digital shelf" to someone (apart for edginess and self validation of course). I have big doubts that Sony will re-attempt a new similar program - everyone is getting quite greedy nowadays and the main mantra currently seems to be "If Nintendo can screw over their customers and remove rewards, so can we!". Hope I am wrong though, the occasional cashback was indeed nice...

It's a shame that PS never really figured out what they wanted to do with PS Stars (at least, that's how it felt) but I'm grateful that I managed to get ~£30 in PSN credit during its time. It should have been integrated into the PS5 and PS4 operating systems to give it half a chance. Here's hoping that PS replace it with another iteration on a loyalty scheme - in my case, being close to the requisite number of points to redeem for PSN credit pushed me to make digital purchases over physical ones on at least a couple of occasions, though I suspect that that might not have been typical if they've decided maintaining PS Stars wasn't good business.

@Balaam_ The implementation of Stars was evidently a bit of a failure, but not for any of the reasons you've mentioned. For the vast majority of people the way collectibles and points were rewarded was relatively simple and accessible; if that's at odds with what a minority of trophy obsessives want then so be it. The main appeal of Stars for most was the free wallet rewards, not the (surprisingly detailed) trinkets, especially when they were only ever visible on the app.

@KilloWertz it’s a digital reward program. How exactly do you expect them to award you for non digital?

@itsfoz

Xbox??

Xbox are the only ones actually committing to their rewards scheme!

And it’s better than Nintendo’s or Sony’s ever been. And it’s built into their consoles and in the Xbox Pc app (and the mobile app), and you can earn reward points in all three ways..

I converted my Xbox points yesterday to a 500 SEK coupon on Amazon (around $45-50). I’ve gathered those points this year, and I haven’t gotten points from game purchases (which you do get as well).

So yeah. The Xbox rewards scheme is fantastic in comparison. Damn Sony… I was hoping they would make Stars better, and implement it into the console. Instead they shaft it completely?? 🤬

I really hope they put out something better. But doubtful, and probably not before the current scheme properly ends in 1.5 years from now(!). 😣

@get2sammyb Getting something back for your money spent is apparently uncool.

I actually quite liked it having it on my phone, and filled my little display case like a teenager even though I'm 51 🤣. I got a few fivers off stuff so it was better than a kick in the teeth

@Pacific no idea , ask star citizen players 😁

Oh no , im gonna miss my occasional fiver 🙄

@get2sammyb I dont get the hate for most things , new film ,grrr hate it, new game, grrrr hate it, book release ,grrr hate it (yup that's a thing) tv show grrrrr, you get the idea 😂

@StrickenBiged if they would've intergrated into the ps5 and had it like a walk round museum with your collectibles ,trophies , maybe a cinema that shown your top ten video clips of achievements, it would've been more successful, that's quite a good idea isnt it , i suprise myself sometimes 😂

I just bought some games to push my points total over 1250 to get my last £5 credit.

Considering that points can only be earned for a few more days (and I think you can redeem until November), I'm wondering if it makes any sense for me to just go ahead and buy a few games I've been eyeing for a while. Things like Stellar Blade or Baldur's Gate III, games that have been on sales, but I keep waiting to see if they'll ever drop to $40 or less. Like it's literally spend money to make money (points in this case) so I feel like there's no real urgency to spend right now.

@LifeGirl When I upgraded to PS Premium for a year, I was interested in the game trials. I got so aggravated at a game that popped a trophy early, before I’d decided whether or not I wanted to play it, that I never played a trial again.

@rusty82 See, Sony? The program works perfectly!

Would have made more sense if you didn't have to buy into it with PlayStation Plus

You got £5 from playing and buying content and yet they got it straight back anyway so they didn't make much of a loss. This is just greed and I mean Microsofts for £5 off is like 6250 points

Ohh No
I love my little stars shelf and collection points to get a £5 ticket to help getting games here and there.

@Balaam_ you sound fun 🙈😂

@Lowdefal well said.

@balaam, see a doctor. Your tirade is that of a person who isn't well. You don't need to 100 everything , sometimes we fail. Accept it.

@Balaam_ your 'perfect' profile wouldn't be much of an achievement if you could just delete the games that you couldn't 100%

@Boucho11 Purchases through PlayStation Direct since you log-in with your PS Plus account anyways. At the very least they should've counted. I'm not saying my complaint isn't flawed, but I also do remember back in the day that some of these rewards programs you could scan your receipt and have it count that way.

I'm confused will the app itself cease to work or just the stars points part of it?

@Jammer the stars

Didn't even know this existed

@Lowdefal I agree but i love to get the 100% for my favorite games and indeed some things are not worth it i boosted the multiplayer of Tombraider on PS4 and after i dropped the game because i could not stand the game anymore somehow. 😆

@Bentleyma Bandai Namco a code with points. I got like. 30% of some collectors editions that where in discount.

Stars is great if you're 12 years old and the collectible shelf on your phone is the coolest thing ever. Webkinz were great when my kids were 12, too, back in the day - though those came with real-world plushies they could play with.

It was worth poking at Stars once or twice a month to grab whatever free points they had to get enough to cash in for PSN wallet funds. Otherwise it was a childish waste of time. I never understood who Sony thought the audience was for this.

Stars was very poor compared to m$ rewards. It's possible to farm out an entire month of GPU Uusing that. In the entirety of the stars life time I think I've only reclaimed maybe 25 quids worth. Considerably less value for money than GPU or converting the points into other vouchers. And the collectibles I saw absolutely no need for them to exist. Other than to scratch some primal itch people have for collecting. And speaking as someone who hoarded stuff once I get that but when it doesn't even "exist" I don't see the point.

Nope I actually couldn't care less now. Sony didn't put the effort into it they should have. I just hope they redirect the wasted energy elsewhere.