According to The Sixth Axis, Sony will retire the Accolades system this fall, a feature unique to the PlayStation 5, because the company was not seeing significant usage. As a PS5 owner, I was shocked–primarily because I didn’t know it existed. So, what is this Accolades system? In any supporting multi-player games, you could award someone an Accolade: Helpful, Welcoming, Good Sport once per match. With this current gen console still high in demand, why did this fail?
While we have no absolute root-cause identified, I can speculate to contributing factors. Firstly, the chip shortage stunted the PS5’s initial launch and only recently are people seeing it become more readily available. However, even then, what about the percentage of those who do own a PS5? Well, the Accolades system is featured in multi-player games, and it would require developers to bake this feature into their games. I agree with The Sixth Axis that perhaps Sony needed to highlight this under a massive first-party title to grab people’s attention. Lastly, I fear this is my pessimism, but Sony’s attempt to create positivity in the gaming environment has fallen upon deaf ears. If you are reading this, you are likely family with how toxic online gamers can be. I’m sure many trolls scoffed at the thought of rewarding a stranger with a “Good Sport” accolade.
It’s unfortunate that Sony plans to pull a PlayStation 5 feature. It’s a touch concerning for me for a console that dealt with production issues that stunted its initial momentum into the market. It’s even more unfortunate that a (possibly haphazard) attempt to foster a positive gaming environment got snuffed out so easily. Let’s hope their new loyalty program, PlayStation Stars, does better.
Did you know about Sony’s Accolade system, and have you ever used it? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.
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Sources: The Sixth Axis via IGN
Featured Image courtesy of PlayStation via The Sixth Axis
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