Is PlayStation Stars down? Sony says rewards scheme will 'return soon' in regional rollout
Sony has revealed its PlayStation Stars rewards scheme will be back soon amid an unprecedented outage that has left users unable to claim game discounts.
The loyalty programme has been offline for almost four weeks now, surpassing the notorious PlayStation Network outage of 2011, which left fans unable to play online on PS3 for 23 days.
After previously confirming that it was working on fixing the issue, Sony has now confirmed that PS Stars will be “returning soon” in a message on its website.
The service will be restored in phased regional rollouts, the company said, suggesting that some countries could get it before others.
“Thank you for your patience and we look forward to welcoming you back,” the message on the PlayStation website reads.
What is PlayStation Stars?
PlayStation Stars is currently having issues. Spoke with PlayStation customer support and was told the issue should be resolved in the next 24 hrs. Hope this helps anyone that was wondering what’s going on with PS Stars. @PlayStation #playstation #daysofplay pic.twitter.com/cnykOh6Kv7
— 🇨🇺🇵🇷 (@m0sth8tedchin0) June 5, 2024
Since its launch in 2022, PlayStation Stars has only been accessible on the PlayStation mobile app for iPhone and Android (you won’t find it on consoles).
Users earn points by completing campaigns and activities tied to games, such as bagging a specific achievement (or trophy), or by making purchases on the PlayStation Store.
These points can then be redeemed for various rewards like PS Store credit, in-game items for specific games, full PS5 and PS4 games, and unique digital collectibles. The programme is tiered, so the more points you earn by playing, the more you progress through these levels, unlocking better rewards as you go.
When will it be back?
Despite news of its revival, Sony still hasn’t given a timeline for when the service will be back online.
The closest we got to some actual changes was back on June 16 when the PlayStation app received an update on iPhone. As a result, the PlayStation Stars logo was restored after initially vanishing, complete with a sparkly new animation.
However, clicking on it still prompts the same error message that users have been seeing since the start of the disruption.
The message reads: “PlayStation Stars is currently experiencing issues. Our engineers are aware of the issue and are working on a fix.”
Just logged into the PlayStation App on my phone, what's happened to PlayStation Stars scheme? Have @PlayStation cancelled it? It's no longer in the App.
— Prince Tybalt (@FrontlineGamer) June 6, 2024
The same line has been repeated by the company’s customer support agents online. When we asked at the start of the outage, they said they couldn’t provide an exact time for a fix.
Nevertheless, the latest news indicates that PlayStation is making progress on the issue and not, as some had feared, abandoning Stars altogether. Still, it’s unclear if the problem is due to a bug or a server-side issue on the PlayStation app caused by an API error.
This outage aside, there doesn’t appear to be a wider problem with PlayStation’s services. PlayStation’s Network status page is currently not showing any problems with its online features, including the PS Store and multiplayer gaming.
