PlayStation Now wants To Copy Steam

Do you remember a time when companies used to innovate? Made something new? actually gave us something worth while? Yea, Its been a few years.

In Sony's state of play today, which was over 2 hours ago as of the time of writing this, the Japanese entertainment giant decided that what PlayStation users most craved out of any possible improvement to the PlayStation network was Steam badges.

You know, those little collectables you get for collecting all the cards you get for playing a game on Steam? Yea those. Pointless as they may be, Steam badges at least let us boast to our friends and other online acquaintances about the level of our Steam account, and of course they have been there for a rather long time.

I guess my main problem is that Sony isn't doing more to make the PlayStation network interesting, It was such a bland announcement in the middle of what looked to be some fairly decent games. I find it strange more than anything.

I mean they could re add the communities feature from Ps4, as popular as it was. Or maybe change back the voice parties so you don't have to have a message group prior to starting one.

I took to twitter to find other peoples reactions to this unappealing news

Eric says that the decision is bland and that they simply don't care, which I imagine is a sentiment a lot of live viewers shared when presented with this 'PlayStation Stars' nonsense.

I mean seriously when was the last time anyone payed attention to their profile on PlayStation? Last time I changed mine was in 2018, I changed the background image to that of a screenshot from Destin 2's Forsaken dlc which had released at the time.

In the actual video presentation for 'PlayStation Stars' Grace Chen, The Vice President of Global Marketing, says that the program will be free (because they are fully aware no one would pay for it) and that the points you earn from the unspecified activities would be able to be "redeemed for rewards", what these 'rewards' will be is unknown.

They could copy the Xbox model of rewards in the form of being able to redeem them for store credit or something of that nature. That would at least make this whole thing a little more interesting and engaging for the player base.

If your sat at home right now, crying at the possibility of PlayStation NFTs then fear not, PlayStation has basically given a big NO! to the possibility of NFTs, which is a win in my books. They most likely saw the overwhelming controversy after controversy of various companies thinking they can cash in on the NFT craze (God willing it never comes back).

Getting back to my point earlier, the PlayStation network really isn't that interesting, I mean sure it has all the bells and whistles of a functioning social media, but it doesn't have anything that really makes it stand out and to be honest, that's a good thing. I, like many, have seen many a social media gimmick and very few last or work at all, so the general safeness of the minimalist PlayStation profile was always a welcoming place that didn't try to shove their quirky ideas in your face.

At the end of this news you're left wondering "why is PlayStation wasting their developers time with this" believe me, I'm thinking that as well. In all fairness its not like they have a lack of developers after their many recent studio purchases, the PlayStation brand is bigger than ever and of course remains the best selling side of the Sony vs Microsoft console war. But surely they can find a better use of their developers.

Having only Sony consoles over my console gaming career, I too feel this mixed feeling of not caring and mild disappointment that PlayStation Stars brings, but it very well may turn into a worth while endeavour if the rewards are actually rewarding.

I Hope you enjoyed the rant, comment and let me know what you think.