Sony recently held a State of Play event where it gave a sneak peek of the first “digital collectibles” that will be offered as rewards under its PlayStation Stars loyalty program.
Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony recently held a State of Play event, offering those in attendance a sneak peek of its “digital collectibles.” The company will offer those digital collectibles as rewards under its PlayStation Stars loyalty program.
However, Sony insisted that the aforementioned digital collectibles should not be construed as NFTs.
Digital Collectibles with a Twist
According to Sony, the PlayStation Stars digital collectibles cannot be considered NFTs since these were not created on the blockchain. Instead, the collectibles are virtual statues of the company’s gaming devices like the PlayStation 3 and the PocketStation PDA. The collectibles can also represent characters from famous PlayStation games such as Ape Escape 2 and mascots like Polygon Man.
Sony unveiled its PlayStation Stars loyalty program in the summer. During that time, Sony said members of the rewards program would earn points and digital collectibles. Members’ earned points could then be used for in-game purchases or to purchase stuff from the PlayStation Store.
However, there was a caveat: it was necessary for members who wanted to earn points and digital collectibles to participate in campaigns. For instance, they must participate in tournaments or play games.
In a recent blog post, Sony mentioned that one of the first campaigns would be called “Hit Play/1994.” Details of the game are expected to come out soon, although the blog post did say that in the initial campaign, Sony will launch games based on song clues.
The PlayStation Stars loyalty program will be released in some regions in Asia near the end of this month, per Sony. It will eventually be rolled out in the United States and Europe. Moreover, Sony explicitly states that, in its early stages, the loyalty program will not be available on PlayStation. Instead, it will be rolled out through the PlayStation app on iOS and Android.
The Digital Collectibles Are Not NFTs
Sony’s insistence that the digital collectibles via the PlayStation Stars loyalty program are not NFTs only shows how traditional gaming companies are apathetic towards blockchain-based gaming. One proof of this apathy was when Ubisoft released its NFT collection. Players were hostile to the news, throwing in downvotes for the announcement trailer and pushing Ubisoft to delist the video.
Nevertheless, some gaming companies are aware of a shift in the industry. Hence, the famous Japanese gaming company Square Enix sold Eidos to Embracer for $300 million and allocated the proceeds for its Web3 investments. It recently formed a partnership with Animoca Brands, a leader in crypto-gaming.
“This, obviously, is not an ideal situation, but I expect to see an eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals as they become more commonplace among the general public, with the value of each available content corrected to their true estimated worth, and I look for them to become as familiar as dealings in physical goods,” said Yosuke Matsuda, Square Enix’s president and CEO.
It seems that Sony took notes from Matsuda because that’s precisely what it’s doing with the digital collectibles. Sony must have realized that NFTs don’t necessarily have to be monetized all the time. Neither do these need to be sold nor made transferable.
The blockchain gaming ecosystem is seemingly set on replacing traditional gaming soon, with gamers poised to become part of the game and earn real-world rewards. Sony saw this; thus, it came up with the PlayStation Stars loyalty program—rewarding players for spending time on its ecosystem with digital collectibles.
Of course, Sony might decide to monetize the digital collectibles at some point. For now, though, Sony is loosely using the term digital collectibles, a term that has come to mean NFTs. We already mentioned earlier what the PlayStation Stars’ digital collectible rewards entail. We just have to wait and see if Sony will adjust its rewards system later.
Get more news updates
Get more NFT news updates at Omnimint News. For more information on Omnimint, and details on how to join our community, please follow our Twitter, or subscribe to our Telegram channel for more updates, and please feel free to submit your article.