The upcoming PlayStation Stars loyalty program for PlayStation consoles may have a secret tier that Sony hasn't publicly announced. PlayStation Stars is a rewards program that encourages participants to complete weekly challenges for prizes, including digital collectibles and other PlayStation offerings like games and more. The more rewards a participant claims, the higher they'll climb in PlayStation Stars' tiers. But Sony may not have been entirely forthwith about its PlayStation Stars plans.

In the formal announcement for PlayStation Stars, the program was described as having four tiers. Climbing from Level 1 of PlayStation Stars to Level 4 involves purchasing full games on the PlayStation Store and earning "uncommon" trophies. Four full game purchases and 128 uncommon trophies are required for access to Level 4 of PlayStation Stars, and benefits include customer support chat priority and an exclusive "celebration collectible." No participation in PlayStation Stars is required to climb to its highest tiers.

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What wasn't shared is that there could be a secret fifth tier to the PlayStation Stars rewards program, discovered only after dataminers investigated a recent update for the PlayStation App. This fifth tier is dubbed Diamond, and part of why it may not have been announced is that it's apparently an invitation-only tier. The description for the Diamond PlayStation Stars tier is, "In an endless sea of stars, it seems like there's nowhere to hide. But you wouldn't be here if you let challenges like that stop you. Welcome to Level 5." Like with previous tiers, Diamond members appear to be given a digital collectible as a reward from Sony, which is shown to be a PlayStation sort of satellite covered in Astrobots.

There's no information regarding what requirements are necessary for Sony to consider someone for an invite to PlayStation Stars' Diamond tier. However, mention of players completing challenges implies it's more of what's been required for previous tiers. If Level 4 requires twice as many purchased games and four times as many uncommon PlayStation trophies as Level 3, it's easy to imagine Level 5 requiring at least a dozen purchased games and hundreds of uncommon trophies.

The big question is why Sony would decide to keep Level 5 of PlayStation Stars a secret. The most logical possibility is that Sony decided not to implement it. It could exist in code fragments only. A second possibility is Sony wants it to seem mysterious and exclusive, which encourages PlayStation Stars participants to buy more games and complete more challenges. The lack of firm requirements will lead players to potentially spend more. A third idea is that PlayStation doesn't want to acknowledge having such an exclusive group, as the rewards for it would be controversial.

Loyalty programs are, historically, not designed simply to reward loyal customers and to keep them returning. They're gamified systems intended to keep people spending more, like a local fast food restaurant offering a free drink after buying ten. The PlayStation Stars loyalty program is likely the same, and the Diamond tier -- if it exists at all -- is just an extension of that. Hopefully, now that it's public, Sony will comment on it so PlayStation Stars users don't have to worry about what they may be missing out on.

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