Reminder: You Must Accept PS Stars Terms of Service to Keep Earning Points

This whole thing is so worthless now! What, am I gonna just do it all for collectibles that no one else can see? And you discontinue Stars for my monthly subscription purchase?! That’s the worst part! Even my credit card company gives me points on subscriptions. Good lord, Sony!

The fact I don’t get points from a PS Plus subscription anymore is evil. It’s gone up to £120, the least they can do is give points.

I've seriously been unable to even load the app anymore. It instantly crashes and even uninstalling hasn't fixed it.

@nessisonett that’s is definitely the most egregious change they’ve made! Almost insulting!

I did, begrudgingly. Points for Ps+ shouldn’t haven been revoked.

Appreciate the heads up 👊

They nerfed this and the rewards program through the CC. I guess since most people have overwhelmingly adopted digital purchases they can now turn up the squeeze. It's fine; I'm getting too old for this anyhow.

You don't get points on subscriptions - but you DO get points on NEW signups or RENEWALS.

So let Plus expire for a day, then sign up for it again.

This is going to be Sony Rewards all over again at this point.

Used to be good, but they restricted the points to only some purchases with some products. Remember when you could get points for trophies? Although some people abused it too much, to be fair.

Yeah I cashed out a month or so back when this was all announced. Paid for my Horizon Remaster. Now done with this program.

I still don’t have the option to claim store credit. I really hope this is a bug because I have enough for £20 which I was going to put towards a new game next month. Sort it out please Sony!

Its free credit. Take it or dont...
I spend plenty so I often have free points for cash towards my next purchase. I also buy credit online and usually get about %16 discount for doing so, which helps get what feel like free titles combined with the rewards cash.

Everytime I go into the app and try to agree to the new ToS, it says "something went wrong"...

@GeeEssEff Thats annoying mate. Your post prompted me to check and Im in the same situation. Hopefully that will be fixed soon...

@Titntin fingers crossed! Would be really really crappy of them to remove this option with no prior warning. Some people still seem to be able to redeem £10s though so hoping it’s just a bug while they roll out the new Ts&Cs.

@RobN wonder if this will work? I’m gonna try it. Will not continue PS+ and ESO+ next month, let it lapse for a day, then sign back up.

Oh No! I can't exchange my points for playsation gift card!? I have been saving up for so long and now that's not even an option!? Way to screw us Sony

I just read this 5 minutes after buying Black Ops 6. Just accepted the T&Cs and got back into it. Now I haven't earned the points from buying COD. I love playstation but god damn do they make it hard to like them sometimes.

PS Stars was laughable, with the new terms it’s a joke.

@Max_the_German How was it laughable? I got €60 credit back for buying and playing the games I was gonna buy and play anyways.

The Live Service cycle:

1. Start off by offering a service with some value, watch people sign up in their masses.
2. Make terms steadily worse and worse over time, degrading value from consumer point of view, but maximising profit company side.
3. Disband service citing lack of engagement/user interest.
4. Replace or reboot, citing lessons learned, and start cycle from point one, repeating exact same cycle.

@vyseofhr ENSHITTIFICATION

@MrPeanutbutterz Yes, and how much did you spend on these games in total? You probably belong to the top 2% spenders on PSN. Most people out there will likely never collect enough points to claim 5 Euros.

@AhmadSumadi Not worthless for digital gamers and considering digital sales far outweigh physical i would say the majority get worth out of stars.

Sony: Agree these new terms and pray I don't alter the deal further.

@Max_the_German £125 got you enough for £5. Digital sales are far greater then physical so i expect anyone who buys at least 2 new games each month gets that £5.

@DennisReynolds 2 new games each month or each year? Because customers buying 2 new full price games each month are absolute power users. PushSquare is a bubble of power users, as streamers are. The vast majority of PS gamers out there are happy with their yearly CoD, FC and/or Madden, plus Fortnite, Valorant etc.

Thank you for the reminder!

PS Plus stopped giving points!? That's petty....

As I am pretty sure the universe revolves around me, I don't think it was coincidence that PS+ stopped giving points right after my subscription ended. So, my bad guys, but think of all the FOMO I didn't suffer from.

***** i Just bought a game before accepting it...

Never signed up for it, still don't care.

Clicked on it, clicked on ok w/o actually reading anything, and my Level 4 and 939 points returned. Woo hoo.

Thank you for the PSA. Unfortunately, many people will never tap on it and notice they are no longer accruing points. It's poor implementation of the new terms of use.

This isn't even a rewards program anymore for regular purchases or subscription renewals(point accumulation is ceasing for this anyways). Just feels like a program that Sony can shine even though it's of no true benefit to PS gamers. I'm disappointed in Sony for this.

Ok guys, let’s be honest…. We need competition, Sony is going crazy, they are not consumer friendly. We need Xbox to have a comeback next gen, maybe Sony will open their eyes and stop doing ***** actions

@DennisReynolds I'm a full-on digital gamer. Have been since early PS4. But I rarely buy games. But I do have a PS Plus and ESO+ subscription and that's who I get most of my points. Now all that is worthless as far as points go.

"Just get it done"... you kidding me? You really just telling us all to overlook whatever updated content and rights we just lost? Just for points? Don't you need like ten trillion points just to accumulate a nickels worth of value on PSN? Lol, no thanks ill pass.

Nice article btw too. The highlight being how you couldn't even be bothered to notify any of us what's changed in the updated ToS.... No wonder games journalism is dying. This piece nailed that point to me.

I have no stars icon when I access the app. I've got about £80 credit just sat there (as I've never redeemed points) which I can't get or even accept the new T&Cs. I sure hope it's a bug and it's sorted soon!

@Max_the_German There's a difference between your CoD/Fifa player and the players that buy games like Black Myth and Metaphor. I'm not talking about the casual player who doesn't even know Stars is a thing i'm talking about the players who got both SH2 and Metaphor this month.

@AhmadSumadi Yeah worthless to you.

I'm not being promoted to accept anything... 🤔

@TrickyDicky99 Nearly all AAA games and big releases have physical releases and digital sales are always greater. People just prefer digital now because that's the age we're in. Convenience trumps all most of the time and digital is just more convenient.

They can accept "the bird" "you know what the bird is right?"

I accepted the terms this morning, but that means nothing to me, because the stupid thing isn't even on my app anymore.

"You must agree to the terms to keep your enrollment in our rewards program that gives you: $0 rewards for most of the things you actually buy, $0 rewards redemption options, and Low, low rewards for some other things. The new minimum redemption quota requires buying more full-priced games than we actually publish ourselves in a year, and you lose them all if you don't accumulate the total and redeem them in one year. Make sure to keep your rewards rolling by bending over agreeing to these new terms today!

@ColKojakSlapheadIII Sony thinking, you ain't getting £80 out of us pal.

Stars has completely disappeared from my app. What's that all about?🤷

Does anyone if monthly subscriptions to MMO's like Elder Scrolls Online would still get rewarded?

@Bagwag82 Same here. A bit hard to accept new terms and conditions when the feature isn't even available at the moment. And no explanation given on top of the already mentioned nerfing.

@Bagwag82 had the same issue. Went into the store on the app and when I came back out, the Stars icon was back. No option yet for me to accept the new Ts&Cs

I reinstalled the app and stars is back. If they don't bother bringing store credit options back I think I'll just give up on it.

@Nekomichu
If you haven’t played it you can get a refund and then just buy it again after you accept. It’s pretty much automated to get a refund if it hasn’t been downloaded

@Bagwag82
Yeah, without store credit it’s pretty much worthless.

So this thing is useless now? It already was a chore to navigate through the rewards/ challenges, but now...
I'll just never start this crap up anymore then. What a waste.

This is one of the many anti consumer practises Sony's been doing since late PS4.
They're complacent. Flying too close to the sun. They're gonna burn and nobody's gonna care.

@RobN @AhmadSumadi Looks like Renewals are going away as well according to this email I received. 🤑

Effective March 1, 2025:

● The definition of “Eligible Purchases” will be updated to exclude all subscription payments made on PlayStation Store (including any initial or renewal subscription payments for PlayStation Plus or any other subscription service), which means that Points will no longer be earned on subscription payments.

@thefourfoldroot1 thanks for the info but i bought it and started the download. :/

@Jrs1 your mum?

You would think with this new update and this new welcome screen on PS5 they would have integrated the Stars stuff into it. It's an optional rewards program at the end of the day and you only get anything out of it if you spend a lot so I imagine most people who are benefiting from it spend what they earn get fairy quickly.

@DennisReynolds I mean, if you’re buying enough game that you’re gonna gain enough points for this to be “lucrative” then you’re probably not really benefiting from it.

With a roughly 4% points/cash ratio, it’ll take spending nearly $500 to get about $20 in Stars to cash out. But you’re correct, “worthless to me”. As I absolutely don’t buy that many games in a calendar year.

@BeerMonster it won’t. Not any longer. Which sucks because that and PS Plus are the 2 that I subscribe to. No subscription wil count anymore. It’s almost like they’re repaying the loyalty of being a subscriber with punishment for being a subscriber lol.

PUT IT ON THE STUPID SYSTEMMMMM. NOBODY WANTS UR STUPID APPPPPPPPP

@Jrs1 🤣🤣 will always love a 'your mum' joke, well played 👍

@AhmadSumadi OK Thanks, looks like I'll be cancelling as soon my monthly subscription renews and then just take it out again when it expires.

@TrickyDicky99 and didn't Sony say around 70%+ of sales on Playstation are digital now or something?

@Max_the_German What I spent is irrelevant, I was buying those games regardless because I wanted to play them. Again, I effectively got €60 off them for my troubles.

So I'll ask again - how is that laughable?

@MrPeanutbutterz If the rules for IE are the same as for here in D, then you earn 10 points for 1 Euro spent. For a 60 Euro voucher, you need 15000 points. That means you spent 1500 Euro on games in the PS Store, wow! Of course having a discount of 4% is nice, but it’s not groundbreaking. And compared to physical games (with manufacturing, logistics, retailer margins), Sony earns an enormous amount of money with PS Store games AND raised the standard price to 70 Euro.

I must admit: If Sony convinced you of PS Stars being a legitimate deal, then they achieved their goal and did everything right.

@TrickyDicky99 Aren't those leaks kinda dated though? The shift is getting bigger and bigger hence why the Pro is a digital console.

@Max_the_German Are you wilfully ignoring the fact that I was spending that money regardless? I also never said it was a good deal, I asked you why you thought it was laughable.

Imagine you're spending that money on a fridge, a sofa, or some other big ticket item. The retailer for absolutely no reason hands you €60 of the price back as store credit. Are you turning it down? Are you telling your friends the store is "laughable"? You're not - so why's getting PSN store credit back on PSN store purchases laughable?

I also never said it was a "legitimate deal". But which is a better deal - four percent back, or zero percent back? We both know the answer to that one too.

I don't think I ever asked to be part of the program in the first place. So I think I'll let it go.

@TrickyDicky99 Yet a lot of people do buy digital and sales of digital games are increasing all the time as this very sites reports all the time.

The Pro and Slim are digital consoles unless you pay more for an add on.

Welp. We've reached the critical mass of greed, where returning less than 1% of your purchases in PSN funny money is just too high an ask of this multimillion and record-profiting company. Literally less than 1 cent back... One. Cent. (Not even an actual cent because it is store credit, but I digress...)

Sony is so greedy they snatched the penny back. And it's actually become hilarious how much of a meme they've become for this stuff recently.

We've reached Mr. Krabs levels of insane greed.

Complaining about this seems a little excessive, given that it's a free rewards program, but I did consider not opting back in just so I'd have 1 less thing to annoy me.

I think Sony can sign me off. New terms will make my points at zero soon. I rather spend my money on Nintendo, my VIP there brought me so much games. Sony brought me Balatro for free and rest is almost impossible to reach until you spend monthly more on PS store than in grocery.

So after reading this article i actually went into this stars stong for the firsr time. Bought an Astrobot pin. Thinking it is like the old my/ckub nintendo I get a little collectible. But it ‘s digital only? Who can i show this off too?

@UnlimitedSevens Would love to see how you arrived at that less than 1% figure...

@romanista exactly! Absolutely worthless nonsense!

@MrPeanutbutterz

Sure! Here in the states, you get 10 points per dollar spent. You need 1250 points for a $5 store voucher. Meaning, you have to spend $125 dollars to get $5 back. 5/125 is 0.008, or in percentage terms, 0.8%.

They obfuscate the low return by not using round numbers (in this case, 1250 points to redeem a $5 voucher.) This is a tactic seen commonly in premium currency sales (not using round numbers, like 1000). But some straightforward math always tells the tale.

PS Stars, I hardly knew ye.

I decided not to accept the new terms and condition and ended my subscription it was virtually useless anyway unless you have Playstation Plus you never got any points the little points I do have are going to disappear soon