Summary
- The PlayStation Stars loyalty program is back online worldwide.
- The service went offline in early June and began rolling out on a region-by-region basis three weeks later.
- PS Plus members are reporting that any purchases made during the blackout are being accurately reflected in the app.
After a nearly one-and-a-half month-long outage, PlayStation Stars is finally back online for members worldwide. The loyalty program for PlayStation users initially went down in early June for unexplained reasons and started returning on a region-by-region basis three weeks later.
As Sony's equivalent to Microsoft Rewards, PlayStation Stars operates in a very similar fashion. Members in eligible regions can sign up to the program for free on the PlayStation mobile app, and earn points from game purchases and completing tasks, which can then be redeemed to buy content on the PlayStation Store. However, the program started facing major issues during the 2024 Days of Play promotional period around June 5, eventually leading to a full-blown outage. Sony didn't confirm the reasons behind it, but the outage lasted over 25 days, exceeding even the PlayStation Network blackout in 2011.
PlayStation Stars Has Been Having Some Major Problems
Sony's loyalty program, PlayStation Stars, has recently been dealing with some major issues that are yet to be resolved as of mid-June 2024.
After the 25-day long service disruption, Sony finally confirmed in early July that PlayStation Stars would return via a staggered regional rollout. The loyalty programs' operations were first resumed in Asia, with Europe, Australia, and the Americas to follow shortly after. Now, service for PlayStation Stars has been restored in all regions at last, allowing players to finally utilize the program's benefits fully once again. Many have also reported on forums like ResetEra and Reddit that their points had been tracked correctly for games they had purchased on the PlayStation Store during the outage, relieving concerns for many players.
PlayStation Stars Is Finally Operational Again For All Regions
On the flip side, other members complain that they didn't accumulate any points for their mid-outage purchases, mirroring a similar situation faced by some PlayStation Stars members who didn't receive their Christmas rewards earlier this year. While the circumstances do seem alike, it must be noted that only PlayStation Plus members can earn loyalty points from in-store purchases. PlayStation Stars members who didn't have an active PS Plus subscription during the downtime wouldn't have been eligible to acquire loyalty points, which could explain why some might be missing them after the program came back online.
However, this issue may also be a potential result of inaccurate tracking, in which case Sony will likely correct the points balance for any impacted PlayStation Stars members. It doesn't appear that the gaming giant will offer any compensatory benefits for members who missed out on the June 2024 rewards for PlayStation Stars, even though the outage was the longest in PlayStation history.
