PlayStation’s loyalty ecosystem is in flux, but the next phase is starting to come into focus. With PlayStation Stars winding down and a mysterious Wallet Credits app surfacing on PS5, the path forward increasingly looks like a shift toward straightforward store credit rather than digital trinkets. I see a pattern emerging in Sony’s own language and in the community’s detective work that suggests wallet-based rewards could become the backbone of whatever replaces Stars.
From Digital Collectibles To A Dead End
When Sony launched its loyalty initiative, it framed PlayStation Stars as a way to reward players for simply doing what they already do, playing games and buying content. The program layered loyalty points on top of digital collectibles, with members earning rewards for specific activities and purchases. According to the official PLAYSTATION STARS TERMS, Sony later highlighted a block of text that begins with “PLEASE CAREFULLY REVIEW THESE CHANGES FOR,” a clear signal that the service’s status was shifting from experimental perk to something that needed an exit plan.
The same legal page spells out that PlayStation Stars is, with the PLAYSTATION STARS TERMS OF SERVICE BEING DISCONTINUED as of a specified Termination Date. In the UK, the matching PLAYSTATION STARS TERMS also stress that the SERVICE is BEING DISCONTINUED, underlining that this is not a regional experiment but a global shutdown. That legal clarity set the stage for Sony to rethink what loyalty should look like on PlayStation.
Sony’s Own Roadmap Hinted At A Successor
Even before players started hunting for clues, Sony had already telegraphed that Stars was not the end of its loyalty ambitions. In a blog post explaining that PlayStation Stars coming, the company said that Starting today, PlayStation Stars will no longer accept new members for this version of the program and that Qualifying Points remain redeemable until November 2026. The same statement, attributed to At Sony Interactive, emphasized that the company is always experimenting with new and exciting ways to evolve future loyalty program efforts, a phrase that reads less like a eulogy and more like a teaser.
Community summaries of that announcement on Reddit highlighted Key points such as Starting today, Stars will no longer accept new members, reinforcing that this was a sunset for a specific implementation, not for the idea of rewards itself. Coverage of the shutdown noted that Otherwise, existing members would continue to earn points for a limited time and redeem them until a cut off, while Sony evaluated what was and was not working. In parallel, the UK TERMS reiterated IMPORTANT DATES AND DETAILS REGARDING the Termination Date, underscoring that the company was carefully managing the transition rather than abruptly walking away.
Wallet Credits App Sparks Replacement Speculation
The clearest hint that Sony’s next loyalty move could revolve around direct store credit arrived not from a press release but from the console interface itself. Players recently spotted a new Wallet Credits app tile in the PlayStation Store, and a Reddit thread about the discovery quickly gathered an Upvote count of 283 alongside a Downvote tally of 23, with users hitting Share and diving into the Comments Section. One poster, sherbodude, summed up the prevailing theory in a single line, writing that Maybe it is a rewards program replacing PS St, a shorthand that captured the community’s hunch that this is more than a simple payment shortcut.
That speculation sits against a backdrop of official guidance telling players to pay attention to the legal fine print. The updated US terms explicitly instruct users to PLEASE CAREFULLY REVIEW, which include details about how long points can be redeemed after the Termination Date. A separate reminder stressed that Former PS Stars members can still convert their balance into free PS Store credit at the Store until a deadline in 2026, effectively turning the old program’s currency into wallet funds. Taken together, the legal language and the new Wallet Credits icon point toward a future where loyalty is measured less in digital figurines and more in how much real spending power players can unlock.
Ghost Rewards Shows Sony Testing Narrower Loyalty
While Stars was a platform wide initiative, Sony has already been experimenting with more focused reward schemes that could inform a broader wallet based system. A franchise specific program tied to Ghost of Tsushima invited fans to visit ghostrewards sites in the U.S. and Europ to access time limited physical merchandise, with a requirement to purchase items before December 31, 2025. Some fans reacted with a mix of curiosity and frustration, encapsulated in the rhetorical question “We lost PlayStation Stars for this?” that circulated around the announcement, which underscored how attached some players had become to the idea of a unified loyalty layer.
Later, a broader initiative described as a new PlayStation rewards program launched in select regions, with reporting noting that it arrived on September 23, 2025 and that it was By Zarmena Khan attributed to Sony as a fresh attempt at engagement in the United States and the United Kingdom. That program, often referred to as Ghost Rewards, leaned heavily on themed perks rather than broad based wallet credit, but it demonstrated that Sony is willing to run parallel experiments while Stars winds down. In that context, a Wallet Credits app could be the missing piece that ties together niche campaigns like Ghost Rewards with a more universal, currency driven incentive structure.
Players Want Clarity, Not Just Collectibles
For many players, the most valuable part of Stars was not the digital collectibles but the ability to turn points into actual spending power. A reminder aimed at Former PS Stars members stressed that they could still claim free PS Store credit with the points they had accumulated until July 2025 and that they have until 2026 to redeem their points, effectively framing wallet credit as the endgame for the program. Guidance on what to do with remaining rewards spelled out that Sony Is Ending Stars Program and that Players should convert their balance before it expires, while also noting there was no talk of a replacement at that time.
Other coverage of the shutdown emphasized that Sony is shutting down its Stars rewards program and will no longer accept any new members, and that the free membership scheme had allowed users to collect loyalty points or digital collectibles for playing specific titles and making purchases. One analysis of the wind down noted that The program would wind down roughly three years after launch, with Sony discontinuing its PlayStation loyalty effort after a relatively short run. In community spaces, posts summarizing the closure, such as the Key thread that broke down how Starting Stars would stop accepting new sign ups, captured a recurring theme in the comments: players were less upset about losing digital figurines than they were about losing a predictable path to discounted games.
