• PlayStation Stars as a free loyalty program that offers digital rewards for completing in-game tasks and activities.
• PlayStation Stars has launched across Asia, including Sony’s native Japan.
• More territories will gain access in the coming weeks.

While fans are baying for a viable competitor to Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation still continues to make odd decisions as regards to how it rewards its loyal gaming community. The latest is called PlayStation Stars, and it is a loyalty program that allows players to earn rewards for completing specific tasks and activities in games.

This new loyalty program begins rolling out today, with Asia being the first region to gain access.

PlayStation will roll out access to other regions in the coming weeks, with it available to those in North and South America from 5th October and it set to arrive in Europe, Australia and New Zealand from 13th October.

Unfortunately the Middle East and Africa region has not been mentioned, which is disappointing given that the brand has such a loyal following in countries like South Africa. We have reached out to local representation on the matter and will share feedback once we have it.

In the interim, Sony has detailed what the loyalty program will offer.

To that end, it notes that, “PlayStation Stars is free to join. You’ll only need to have an adult account for PlayStation Network and accept the program’s Terms of Service. While you will earn certain benefits for being a PlayStation Plus member, a PlayStation Plus membership is not required to join PlayStation Stars.”

“With PlayStation Stars, you earn rewards by completing a variety of campaigns and activities. Our ‘Monthly Check-In’ campaign simply requires you to play any game to receive a reward. Other campaigns will ask you to earn specific trophies, or even be among one of the first players to platinum a blockbuster title in their country/region. One of our first campaigns is called ‘Hit Play/1994’ where members who correctly launch games that match song-based clues receive a special collectible,” adds PlayStation in a blog post.

This loyalty program is unlikely to win more players over, so we are still awaiting a decent offering to compete with Game Pass.