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PlayStation Stars Downtime Now Surpassing 2011’s Infamous PSN Outage

Do you care about PlayStation Stars?


  • Total voters
    157

Topher

Identifies as young
PlayStation Stars has now been down a tad longer than 2011’s infamous PSN outage, with no resolution in sight. All set to break its past record, Sony Interactive Entertainment has not provided a time frame for restoration of the loyalty program, leaving players locked out of their PS Stars points for nearly four weeks now.

PlayStation Stars members becoming increasingly frustrated as program remains down
Reports of PS Stars outage first emerged during the first week of June, and it took Sony a couple of days to acknowledge the problem. There’s been no communication from the company since, and PlayStation Support agents have been giving players a variety of answers regarding points earned during the downtime.

For context, the 2011 PSN outage lasted a little over three weeks after a major intrusion by hackers. This time, however, it seems that the issue is of Sony’s own making.

We recently reported that players appear to be racking up points for their purchases while PS Stars is down, and shared two backdoor methods of checking points. This has since been disputed by a number of members, who took to Reddit to reveal that none of their recent purchases had been accounted for when they checked their points history using the outlined methods.

Here’s hoping that there’s a little bit of compensation from Sony. I’ll take some free points.




I've seen zero discussion or concern on this. Does anyone really care?
 

nial

Member
I can't even reconize Playstation. Have been a rollercoaster since end of PS4 generation.
Over PS Stars being down?
Season 4 Andy GIF by The Office
 

TheDarkPhantom

Gold Member
My assumption is it was somehow exploited to grant unearned points and they've been trying to secure the infrastructure so it can't happen again. I've gotten a bunch of PSN credits through it from my purchases so I welcome it's return whenever that may be.
 

Roxkis_ii

Member
I recall reading some where that you will need to spend over a $1000 to earn enough points to earn a $70 game.

My interest died after learning the above.
 

Markio128

Gold Member
I’m sure some points were backtracked a while back due to some kind of bug. I’d imagine the same will happen again.

Mind you, I haven’t bought any games since Stellar Blade because I’m intent on smashing through my backlog.
 
As someone who is on gaf regularly, I didn't even know this was a thing. Guessing I signed up before and completely forgot and never checked it. "Re"-found out about it back in April and had enough points to get $25 in gift cards.

Guessing Sony hasn't been open about it because it really isn't impactful to many people. Still bs on their part, and while no one seems to know the problem, it shouldn't take this long to resolve whatever issue they have. But ultimately one of your last points is what I'm hoping for. If Sony throws some free points our way, I would be completely ok with that (especially if all our points have still be tracking).
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
seems like something serious happen on stars.
Would be funny if they "fixed" stars after astro bot released for few weeks.
 

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Speaking of rewards system, it would be great if they had something similar to Nintendo and their gold points (i.e. redeeming physical game purchases could also earn you points, albeit at a lower rate than digital ones).

I think I've netted like €50 in gold points on Switch in just a year and a bit, which was pretty cool since I bought a bunch of indies on sale with them.
 
Last edited:

Mr Hyde

Member
Don't care about PS stars so not too fussed about this. It's a shit program designed for fomo, with little incentives or rewards to participate other than Sony wanting you to spend a ludicrous amount of money in their store. In other words, it's completely useless.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I don't personally think its a huge deal. Hopefully they're tracking it for people.

The bigger context is that Sony just has a history of some weird dated backend systems issues in numerous other areas. Been that way since PS3. It works, just not ideal.
 
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deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God

phant0m

Member
My assumption is it was somehow exploited to grant unearned points and they've been trying to secure the infrastructure so it can't happen again. I've gotten a bunch of PSN credits through it from my purchases so I welcome it's return whenever that may be.

this is my guess as well. some points exploit for either unearned or multiple redemptions

I have no idea what Playstation Stars even is.

it's a free loyalty program you get for everything you buy on PSN as well as playing games and completing "campaigns" (kind of like the monthly game pass quests). the "stars" can be redeemed for in-game items/DLC, full games that opted in (usually stuff that's $30 or less), or straight up PSN account credit.

I recall reading some where that you will need to spend over a $1000 to earn enough points to earn a $70 game.

My interest died after learning the above.

it's a free program and you can get PSN credit in $5 and $20 increments. I've spent thousands and thousands on steam and earned jack shit out side of stickers and steam page BS cosmetics. nothing's ever good enough for gamers is it? you also earn stars through playing games (a la GP quests) so you don't even have to spend anything. jfc

Do you know those "rewards" that you receive with games on smartphones? Like logging in every day or something like it. Sony did for the console, and it's the same dogshit as smartphones

Nobody really cares, and if dies, nobody will miss it

I'll miss getting free PSN credit from playing games along with 4% back on my PSN purchases. do you hate free money?
 
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Skifi28

Member
Do you know those "rewards" that you receive with games on smartphones? Like logging in every day or something like it. Sony did for the console, and it's the same dogshit as smartphones

Nobody really cares, and if dies, nobody will miss it
If you're going to try and explain it, at least do it properly. You can completely ignore all the "monthly challenges" crap and basically just get money back from every digital purchase you make. It's a great return for doing nothing other than signing up.
 

MudoSkills

Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
Looks like everything is fucked at the moment. I was just playing Balatro (I'm not supposed to be at work, obviously) and realised when I quit that I wasn't signed in, and the app appears to be down too.

Maybe they fixed stars but broke everything else.
 

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
I've gone 9 months without a Playstation 5. Sold it last year. I'm a traitor, the opposite of loyal.
I might get a PS5 PRO if Astrobot withdrawls start creeping in.
 
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