Hot off the back of the latest PS5 Beta which introduces a whole heap of new features, Sony is canceling something else. Its hyped launch feature, Accolades is being put out to pasture because it doesn't get used enough.

Here's the official blurb, first spotted by Push Square: 

In fall of 2022, the Accolades feature on PlayStation 5 will no longer be supported. The feature hasn’t seen the level of usage we anticipated, so we are refocusing our efforts. We encourage the community to continue to send positive messages to one another.

Accolades on PS5

So what the heck even is Accolades? Chances are you didn't use it, after all. Accolades were launched as a kind of achievement/reward system for multiplayer games and members of the PlayStation community. The idea was to help spread a little positivity when you played with a complete stranger, giving them an Accolade. You can't send them to friends, and they're anonymous. Accolades you receive are displayed on your profile as a virtual badge of honor showing you're a good egg.

The idea is sound, lord knows it's nice to see any tool help to spread positivity. But it seems we don't appreciate each other enough for it to live on. And that's a real shame.

Instead of feel-good rewards, Sony is in the process of introducing the PlayStation Stars program. This looks initially like a PlayStation take on Microsoft Rewards, the program that gives you points for completing quests, and achievements, or even just spending money on the Xbox. Sony's initial plans suggest a similar kind of reward scheme for PS4 and PS5 players, along with "digital collectibles" which sound suspiciously like NFTs.

These are just some of the changes taking place in the PlayStation world right now. Recently, of course, the PS Plus program went through its own overhaul, introducing new tiers and folding in cloud gaming.

via Push Square