PlayStation Stars is one among Sony’s most weird initiatives within the PlayStation 5 period. This system enables you to earn cash you should use to purchase video games on PSN, in addition to accumulate digital collectible figurines that may solely be considered within the PlayStation app. And the entire thing has been damaged for the reason that starting of June.
If you happen to’re a standard individual, you’re in all probability questioning what the hell PlayStation Stars even is. Assuming you forgot or have been by no means conscious to start with, like seemingly most PlayStation gamers at this level, this system was an overhaul of PlayStation Rewards that launched again in 2022. Gamers might get cash for getting video games or finishing “campaigns” that challenged them to play sure sorts of video games in change for bespoke collectibles. These could be added to a digital ebook shelf that ranged from callbacks to the platform’s historical past to branded cross-overs like Spider-Man Adidas.
Nonetheless, it’s a pleasant method to earn money again that finally provides up. We first began noticing points round June 6, when PlayStation Stars, accessed through small icon on the house display of the PlayStation cellular app, wouldn’t open. As an alternative, gamers have been greeted by an error message: “PlayStation Stars is at present experiencing points. Our engineers are conscious of the difficulty and dealing on an answer.”
The timing was particularly odd, since Sony was operating a bunch of PlayStation Stars promotions alongside its mid-year Play Days sale occasion. This meant there have been sure collectibles and awards that might solely be earned by buying and taking part in sure video games in the course of the occasion. In response to PlayStation Assist, customers would proceed to accrue factors and collectibles even whereas this system was down, although they wouldn’t be capable of see any of it, not to mention monitor what was nonetheless incomplete.
25 days later, this system remains to be damaged. As customers on the PlayStation Stars subreddit have been predicting, that places it past the 23 day outage that PSN infamously suffered again in 2011 following an unprecedented hack. Throughout that interval, PS3 gamers have been unable to play video games on-line, purchase them digitally, or use any of the console’s social options. As soon as service was restored, Sony apologized by giving gamers free video games and a month of PS Plus on the home.
PlayStation Stars wasn’t hacked, doesn’t value cash, and is utilized by far fewer individuals, so its outage is hardly a scandal within the scheme of issues. It’s simply very unusual, and Sony hasn’t but clarified what precisely the issue is nor when the rewards program might be again up and operating. The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.