‘We Lost PlayStation Stars for This?’ Sony Announces Franchise Rewards, a Time-Limited Physical Merch Program With Items Locked Behind Trophies

Sony has announced Franchise Rewards, a new program that grants players the ability to buy physical PlayStation merchandise — if you unlock specific in-game trophies by a certain date.

The scheme kicks off with Ghost Rewards, unlocked by earning specific trophies in Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima before December 31, 2025.

If you've unlocked the "Mono no Aware" Gold trophy, you'll be granted the ability to pay $30/€33 for a commemorative T-shirt. Unlock the "Living Legend" Platinum trophy and you can additionally choose to pay $25/€28 for an commemorative pin. You'll also then need to pay shipping on top, with standard delivery priced at around $13 within the U.S. (or expedited delivery at around $25).

The initial fan response to the scheme has been mixed, with many pointing to its announcement as a lackluster replacement for Sony's recently-retired PlayStation Stars loyalty program.

"We went from getting points from buying games to buy more games for free, to getting points that give us the honor of giving them more money," noted PlayStation fan thickwonga413. "Thanks guys."

"We lost PlayStation Stars for this?" concurred WaveHood1. "Bruh. Give the PS Store cards back."

Others have compared the offer to Bungie's long-held practice of offering exclusive Destiny merchandise to players who have completed a certain number of tasks in-game each year. "Play to pay," SilentElite99 observed. "The Destiny method."

For those interested, you'll need to head to ghostrewards.playstation.com in the U.S. (or ghostrewards.eu.playstation.com in Europe) to unlock and purchase the items before December 31, 2025. It's unclear why there is a time limit, but there we are.

PlayStation will continue its scheme with the next set of Franchise Rewards, for the upcoming Ghost of Yotei, later this year. More details on that will be announced in the future.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social