PlayStation Rewards beta closing, full program delayed indefinitely

In an e-mail sent to PlayStation Rewards beta users last night, Sony wrote, "Your feedback helped us understand the kinds of things that make you feel appreciated and valued. Based on what we learned, we have decided the program is not ready to roll out to the public in April as originally planned. But rest assured, we will continue to thank loyal and devoted customers like you with innovative offerings."

The beta program classified each loyal participant into one of three levels: Select, Pro, and Legendary. As soon as you reached a new level you received a voucher for free PSN content. Much of this consisted of low-value items like avatars, themes, or PlayStation Home toys.

Players reached new levels by earning points for activities that ranged from watching an episode of Pulse to earning specific in-game trophies. However, Sony never told anyone how many points they earned for each activity nor how many points were needed to reach the next level.

What would make more sense to me is if the rewards program were concrete and comprehensible - like earning rewards for spending a certain amount of money in the PlayStation Store or after you've purchased a specific number of games. The whole concept of not knowing what earns you points, and then not even knowing what rewards you're working toward, didn't really work. Apparently I'm not the only one who felt that way.

Mar 29, 2011