I’ve been using the new PlayStation Stars service that launched in North America today. To say that it is working properly would be a lie.

It started off fine, in fact I’m already Level 2. But soon after my completed tasks stopped registering.

I’ve played several of the games listed in campaigns and they are not showing up as a completed task. I’ve purchased one of the listed games (Saints Row 5) and again, no points are being credited to my account.

So for the last 5 hours I’ve been trying to contact PlayStation support. I finally get through to an agent and – you guessed it – they have no clue on what to do and no idea on how to help. Ultimately they refer me to a “specialist”. That is, they wanted to, but no specialist ever arrives. The agent then abruptly adds this copy/paste message before leaving the chat:

“Thank you for holding.

We are really sorry for the long wait.

We understand you came looking for a solution and so far we have been unable to address the problem with your missing points.

As of this moment, it appears that due to the new system being implemented our chat specialists that handle this type of problems are having technical difficulties.

We offer an apology due to the fact that we couldnt get this issue fix now.

However, we have escalated this and attached all the information provided.

Please wait 24 hours and check your profile. If within 24 hours this issue still persists go ahead and contact us back.

Also, you can contact us by phone support if you would like to get additional support tomorrow.”

For what it’s worth I asked him would I get better priority service if I was Level 4 instead of Level 2. He said, “No”

This refreshed service is completely underwhelming. As a day one PS Plus & day one PS Now customer I can't believe this was the best offering PlayStation could muster.

This makes PlayStation's uninspired and unimaginative announcement sound and feel even more dated. Well done, Phil Spencer.

@yzeone: Doubtful. My guess is that it'll go the Minecraft route rather than the Halo route.

@xnshd: What makes you think these will be exclusive when Minecraft isn't...?

@caj1986: Unless Phil/Todd implements exclusivity deals I wouldn't worry all that much. Money is money, and if Sony's PlayStation represents millions of dollars I have a hard time believing they'll just leave it on the table.

@gamerbum: I guess someone has to represent the minority opinion...

Apparently Walmart jumped the gun on preorder sales, causing all other retailers to have to follow suit.

One more reason to not use Twitch

Something smells fishy here. This leaks, so that they are forced to confirm the Xbox Series S but not the Xbox Series X? Why not just confirm the Xbox Series X price at the same time?

Don't fall for it Sony. You wait until Microsoft finally officially announces the $499 Xbox Series X price, before you make your move.

This is a trap. ;)