Sony has begun sending out Emails to current PS Plus subscribers to notify them of changes to PlayStation Stars terms and conditions. If you can’t remember what PS Stars is, I can’t blame you because it doesn’t tend to get a lot of attention, even from Sony. In fact, it literally went offline for a month earlier this year. Basically, it’s a reward program where you earn points for purchases and completing little quests, and those points can be redeemed for games, gift cards and more. It’s actually pretty decent, considering you don’t have to do anything special or go out of your way to earn points.
Sadly, Sony has made the decision to make PS Stars slightly worse. In the terms and conditions that must be accepted or else your PS Stars account will be terminated, Sony reveals that points will no longer be earned from subscription payments, initial or recurring. In other words, your monthly or yearly sub to PS Plus Extra or Premium will no longer earn any PS Stars points.
That’s annoying because while subs probably weren’t earning you heaps of points, they were still a solid way of building up your Stars bank account without having to do anything.
Furthermore, any points you earn will now expire exactly 12 months after they appear in your account. Chances are you’ll probably use points within that time frame, but if you were hoping to hoard some points over a long period – perhaps because you don’t earn many anyway and want to redeem them for one of the full games available in the rewards tab – then tough shit.
To be honest, these are some baffling decisions by Sony. The PS Stars reward scheme is already worse than both Xbox Rewards and Nintendo’s eshop coins, yet Sony seems determined to damage it further. What, really, is the point in making points expire? Are they worried about people hoarding them like a dragon’s treasure for years before cashing in? And removing the ability to earn points from subscription renewals is absurd.
At this point, why is PS Stars even a thing? You still can’t even access it from your console. Instead, you have to use the mobile app, which is probably why the vast majority of gamers aren’t even aware of PS Stars.
In the end, this isn’t a huge issue. It’ll affect a very small amount of people, and even then it won’t ruin their day. But once again it seems to prove that we just can’t have nice things.
