Sony has clarified that its new PlayStation Stars loyalty programme will not reward members with NFTs. Speaking to The Washington Post, vice president of network advertising, loyalty, and licensed merchandise Grace Chen made clear that the “digital collectibles” on offer were absolutely not related to the controversial non-fungible tokens.
“It’s definitely not NFTs. Definitely not,” Chen said. “You can’t trade them or sell them. It is not leveraging any blockchain technologies and definitely not NFTs.”
Sony announced PlayStation Stars earlier today as a reward points programme that will allow players to earn points with real cash value.
For completing campaigns like playing a PlayStation game, winning tournaments, or being the first person to unlock a Platinum Trophy, players will earn points they can spend in a rewards catalogue. This will include PSN wallet funds and other PlayStation Store products, but also these new digital collectibles.
The description Sony offered did make them sound a little like NFTs, as it called them “digital representations of things PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation.”
Given Chen’s response to the idea, however, this is seemingly far from the truth. New collectibles will be added regularly, and Sony said that some will be particularly rare and something for players to continuously work towards.
NFTs, on the other hand, aim to allow for ownership of digital items and some developers and publishers have already explored letting gamers own certain unlocks, such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s limited edition Quartz gear.
The exploration of NFTs in games has been a widely controversial topic in the gaming sphere so far, however, though interest appears to have quietened down a little in the last few months. Companies such as GSC Game World and Team17 went all in on them before quickly cancelling those plans, while others such as PlatinumGames and Steam taking a stance against NFT implementation in games.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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