PlayStation drops free download as apology to fans, no PS Plus needed

Sony have got a little treat in store for users who were affected by some recent server outages, but some users are already taking umbrage with exactly how "little" said treat actually is.

Last month, halfway through Sony's Days of Play event, the PlayStation Stars section of the PS App suddenly became completely inaccessible. PS App users were greeted with the error message "Something went wrong" and asked to "Try again later" whenever they tried to access the PlayStation Stars function.

This meant that users attempting to complete any of the Days of Play campaigns were unable to redeem its rewards during the outage. Fortunately, Sony have since updated their PlayStation Stars FAQ to assure players that anyone who had their account linked to the service before it went down "have continued to earn Points for PS Store purchases during this time, including during Days of Play".

Thankfully, the service is now back up and running. The Days of Play event did end on the 12th of June however, so anyone who couldn't set up an account during this period seems to be out of luck as far earning reward points goes.

On the plus side, Sony have a different kind of reward for those of you that were affected by the blackout. You may want to brace yourselves folks, because you may not be physically and mentally prepared for how mind-blowingly valuable this gift truly is. I hope you're all sitting down.

Drum roll please. It's... a... collectible digital reward. That's right folks, if you log into the PS App right now you too could be the proud owner of the "Community Challenge | Days of Play 2024" digital trophy! Wow! Sony, you really shouldn't have.

Basically you're redeeming the equivalent of a PS App exclusive NFT, except somehow even less valuable. It also would be remiss of us not to mention that this is a reward for an event... that most users of the PS App were unable to actually take part it. It's basically a consolation prize for not attending something. Thanks, I guess?

A few people are understandably upset at being offered said "reward", if the comments on True Trophies' news post are anything to go by.

There's also seemingly no news as to why the service went down in the first place, or why the outage only affected certain regions, so maybe it's best that everyone links their accounts while the service is still currently live. Who knows when it might randomly go down for an undefined period of time again.