Sometimes I think Sony is guilty of saying too little.
I remember when it announced PS5 backwards compatibility, and it was so cautious with its language that there was concern over how widely supported it’d be. It ended up being superb and working with practically every PS4 game.
I mention all this because the company has taken tremendous heat for its decision to do away with physical media, but if a newly discovered incentive turns out to be real, it could soften the blowback.
A Reddit post – discovered by PSLS – shows select games like The Blood of Dawnwalker are now eligible for “Wallet Credit”. Cashback, in other words.
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It’s worth noting that we haven’t been able to replicate the feature, so it seems like this is only being served to a select number of users for now. It looks like it’s only available in the US as well.
But there’s some scattered reporting that Halloween, Star Wars Zero Company, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 2, and Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush all currently support it as well. That’s a good mix of recent games from a variety of different publishers, which is exciting.
Apparently, you’ll be notified how much “Wallet Credit” you’ll receive at the checkout, and in the case of this The Blood of Dawnwalker purchase, the user apparently received $10 back.
Now obviously that money needs to be reinvested into the PS Store, but I’ll never argue against free cash – even if it is virtual in this instance.
I personally really liked PS Stars because it allowed me to earn quite a lot of “free” $5 top-ups, which I then used to save on other purchases. I was really sad to see it go away.
Some users have noted that there’s a “Wallet Credit” app in the PS Store, although it can’t currently be downloaded. Perhaps this will allow you to manage your funds on the PS5 itself.
Until Sony makes an official announcement, it’s likely this is all just testing for now – but hopefully this is something that gets rolled out more widely.
The thing with schemes like this is they are nefariously good at incentivising repeat purchases. For example, if you get $10 for buying The Blood of Dawnwalker, there’s a good chance you may use it to put down another $60 on Marvel’s Wolverine.
Yes, Sony’s “losing” $10 by providing the promotion, but that second purchase may never have occurred without the cashback in the first place.
How would you feel about a feature like this? Is it something that’d personally appeal to you? Would something like this make the death of physical games more palatable? Let me know below.
