Sony’s new loyalty program “PlayStation Stars” will open in October for the European and American markets and has now landed in the Japanese market. However, Japanese gamers have strongly criticized one of the program’s settings. In the PlayStation Stars program, one of the top rewards is “better customer service”.
The PlayStation Stars program has 4 levels. All players start at level 1 and move up as they buy and play games and earn trophies. To reach level 4, players need to purchase at least 4 full-price games in the PS Store and get 128 rare trophies, and then players will be rewarded with priority customer service.
This practice of dividing players into classes and grades has drawn a great deal of criticism from Japanese players, saying that quality customer service should not be something that players have to earn back by their own efforts.
Sony has not yet issued a response to this criticism, nor has it announced details of the rewards for the PlayStation Stars version in the European and American markets.
