PS Stars' lack of PS5 integration is getting ridiculous

While Sony's PS5 and PS4 loyalty scheme does offer fun collectibles for fans, PS Stars desperately needs PS5 integration if it's going to stick around.

Opinion by Lee Brady

Published 28 Jul 2023

It's been over nine months since the first PlayStation Stars campaigns launched for PS5 and PS4 users, and while the loyalty scheme has amassed something of a community in that time, it still very much lingers on the fringes of Sony's PlayStation family. Glancing at our PlayStation Stars guide, you might find that muted response a little strange — it's giving away free games and collectibles, after all — but PS Stars still needs PS5 integration if it has any hope of winning players round.

PlayStation Stars needs PS5, PS4 integration as soon as possible

When PlayStation Stars was first unveiled over a year ago on Thursday, July 14, 2022, I imagined — and I'm sure I'm not the only one — that what we were getting was a PlayStation-themed take on Microsoft Rewards. By that, I mean I was expecting the PS5 (and possibly even the PS4) to update with a new app or hub that players could check between gaming sessions to claim reward points and gawk at all the neat little collectibles Sony was giving us.

There was hope integration was coming back in February, but that since passed.

However, after we got our first look at PlayStation Stars, Sony informed us that the loyalty scheme would only see full compatibility on mobile devices. We were then told that there were "plans to expand to console devices in the future," which — in my head, at least — felt like code for "a few months down the line." Yet here we are, nine months down the line, and the PS5 and PS4 still lack full PS Stars integration.

Having spent so long looking over the loyalty scheme, it's clear to me that the lack of PS Stars PS5 integration enables a core of negativity that can't help but snowball into wildly unflattering aspersions being cast on Sony's decision-making. Without this simple feature, the PlayStation Stars user experience is nonexistent, the community's chance of growing is limited, and it'll keep making people wonder "Why does it have to be this way?"

The PS App experience.

The PS App is killing PlayStation Stars

On the user experience side of things, the lack of PS5 integration negatively impacts one of PS Stars' biggest draws: its tailor-made collectibles. These lovingly rendered digital models function like exceptionally unique trophies and can be displayed on a digital shelf to our friends. Of course, as things are, neither my friends nor yours are ever going to see that shelf. Not when the feature is tucked so deeply into the back of the PS App that, even if anyone did use the app for stuff like this, they couldn't possibly enjoy browsing it.

The problem feeds the community's issues too. There's a lively scene online of people checking in on the latest PlayStation Stars campaigns, trying to unlock fun rewards, while also mourning the loss of silly ones like the canceled Sony Aibo collectible. However, lively as it is, it can't help but hurt the community's incentive to bother collecting these digital trinkets if they can't even easily share them with their friends.

PlayStation Stars trinkets like this are genuinely quite cool.

So few people regularly use the PS app for anything other than replying to messages and buying the odd game that it's a struggle to even convince people to sign up for PS Stars in the first place. I hear constantly via comments and Reddit threads just how "pointless" people think this scheme and its rewards are. That's despite the fact that those rewards are essentially free games, or that the collectibles are at least equally as "pointless" as trophies.

This "pointless" argument stems mostly from PS Stars being rooted in the PS App, which makes the whole scheme feel external and superfluous to the core PlayStation experience. It's an approach that seemingly accomplishes the opposite of what loyalty schemes are designed to do well — keeping people invested in something they are already invested in.

Who on earth will be checking this thing?

Sony's loyalty scheme is a bad coffee shop

Imagine you have a favorite coffee shop, and the barista tells you that you'll get a discount every time you buy your coffee there. Sounds pretty good — next time you're in the mood for coffee, you'll probably weigh it up and consider coming to this store instead of someplace else.

Well, in contrast, the PlayStation Stars experience is like first having to register your interest at a second coffee shop the barista owns across the road, just so the barista knows that you would like a discount on your coffee today. Then, after crossing back over to that first coffee shop, you buy your coffee, and then the barista hands you a discount — but you'll need to cash it in at his second shop first.

Cash in your coffee tokens.

I think we would all be on your side when you inevitably throw your arms up and declare coffee shop discounts "pointless." But now you might start thinking — well, maybe other coffee shops do discounts too. In fact, now that you think about it, isn't that one coffee shop down the road, the one owned by a monster conglomerate — isn't it known for its easy discounts? And now that you really think about it, maybe you actually prefer the taste of coffee on Xbox Series X|S anyway! (I think this metaphor may have run its course.)

PS Stars trails behind Nintendo and Microsoft's loyalty schemes

No, I don't really believe that people are so disenfranchised by having to use the PS App to access PlayStation Stars that they'll actually start buying their games on rival platforms out of discount-related spite. However, if Sony was selling coffee rather than console-locked games, you could imagine just how disastrous their approach to PS Stars could be, right? I have no doubt that gamers would spend their dollars elsewhere more regularly if the marketplace wasn't so utterly dictated by the brand of game box that they own.

The competition.

Look at Microsoft Rewards — a deeper, more varied loyalty scheme that runs on the currently active range of Xbox consoles. Even look at the Nintendo Switch — sure, 'My Nintendo Rewards' is a tacked-on nothing of a loyalty scheme, but even that has a prominent spot on the Switch's main page. Plus, the only reason it feels so tacked on is because the Switch already has the single best discount system in the industry — they don't even need you to join their loyalty scheme because their point scheme is just that good.

How is it the other console makers can accomplish the bold feat of launching their loyalty schemes onto their consoles, yet Sony has us abandoning the PS5 for minutes at a time just so we can check out campaigns on our phones? How can we be nine months on from the launch of PS Stars and still without any specific confirmation that all these collectibles will someday be part of the core PlayStation experience?

Combined with PS5, PS Stars could really be something.

At its heart, I really like PlayStation Stars — I think it has great potential, and the fact that it allows me to more cheaply pick up the best PS5 games going is more than welcome. It just needs to get better, and quick, because it's starting to look pretty embarrassing. What's your take on PS Stars so far, though? Sound off in the comments below.

PlayStation Stars

Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Fantasian Neo Dimension), one eye on the past (PS1, PS2, and PS3 games), and his secret third eye on junk he really likes (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Sonic). A PlayStation fan for over 25 years, he loves replaying classic games via PS Plus.