PlayStation's New "Digital Collectibles" Definitely Aren't NFTs

On Thursday, Sony Interactive Entertainment released a surprise announcement about a new service coming to PlayStation consoles. Most of the details about the new "PlayStation Stars" initiative, which resembles "rewards" perks from other gaming services, look promising, but at Ars Technica, Sony's choice of a two-word phrase instantly blew us away. scares: "digital collectibles."

Fortunately, members of the SIE PR team were quick to draw lots with an email response to allay our fears: no, this is not Sony's attack on NFTs.

The new service, set to launch "later this year", will cost nothing to join and will exist outside of the PlayStation Plus family of subscriptions. PlayStation Stars, as loosely described in Sony's announcement on Thursday, revolves around a soup of connected concepts, but at first glance it basically resembles the Microsoft Rewards system of the modern Xbox family of consoles. The TL version; DR: Earn digital rewards by playing video games.

PlayStation Stars members can play specific PlayStation console games to complete “campaigns” and “activities,” though only campaigns are outlined in Thursday's announcement. These range from tasks as simple as playing a particular game in a given month to more dedicated tasks like collecting game-specific PlayStation trophies or even getting the first difficult "platinum" trophy unlock. to reach from a game in a region as large as a time zone. As described, these campaigns can correlate with games tied to the PlayStation Plus service, much like how Microsoft Rewards promotes Xbox Game Pass titles.

If you complete campaigns and activities in PlayStation Stars, you can expect at least two types of 'rewards'. The first described today, called "Loyalty Points", can be spent on a "catalogue" of digital offers, and these include credits for PlayStation Network purchases or cashback offers for PSN products. "selected" as games. And I already mentioned the second type of reward, dubbed digital collectibles, which looked suspiciously like NFTs in Sony's initial announcement:

These are digital representations of things PlayStation fans appreciate, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that draw on the history of PlayStation. innovation from Sony. There will always be a new collectible to win, an ultra-rare collectible to seek out, or something surprising to collect just for fun.

In a statement emailed to Ars Technica, SIE Senior Public Relations Officer Aram Jabbari clarified that it is not about NFT. “These digital collectibles are created solely for our loyalty program, and while some may be rare, they are not unique, nor does [PlayStation Stars] use blockchain technology,” Jabbari writes.

So, as described, these digital collectibles may just look like a more old-fashioned approach to the gaming world, where cosmetic 3D objects can be displayed after doing something unique or difficult in a video game without any financial system adding artificial scarcity. The PlayStation 5's built-in video game Astro's Playroom already includes a similar system, as the game includes unlockable 3D models of old PlayStation hardware as secret in-game trinkets, no purchase necessary. (Speaking of PS5: Jabbari declined to comment on whether PlayStation Stars will work on all PlayStation console families or if it will be locked to the new PlayStation 5 console.)

Ars Technica readers may already be familiar with many, many, many,