Sony updated its Important Notices page today to tell PlayStation 5 users that the console’s Accolades feature, starting this fall, “will no longer be supported,” stating that it “had not seen the level of use that we foresee”. Like most PS5 users, this was the first time I had heard that the console had a built-in multiplayer feedback system.
Accolades is a PlayStation 5 feature that allows players to compliment other players on their performance in multiplayer matches. After completing a match, players can anonymously send badges to others they want to recognize for things like being “helpful,” “welcoming,” or being a “good sport.” However, you cannot spam them or artificially inflate your friends’ virtual praise collections, as you cannot send praise to your friends or anyone you have already praised within the last 12 hours.
Image: Sony
Despite its plans to discontinue the feature, Sony “[encourages] community to keep sending each other positive messages.” There’s an excellent joke here about how players don’t like praising each other in multiplayer games, but there’s a better explanation for why why praise was so underutilized: Not many people knew. It wasn’t a feature that Sony advertised very well, and many multiplayer games like Overwatch and Final Fantasy XIV already have praise systems built in. And despite recent forays from the maker of consoles to bolster PlayStation’s online gaming offerings and capabilities, the PlayStation 5 isn’t currently the platform I associate with a satisfying online experience.If I wanted to attack FFXIV, that’s what my gaming PC is for.
But don’t worry, PlayStation owners: You’ll soon have plenty of new social features for PlayStation 5. Last Thursday, Sony announced that it would open a beta mode to test screen sharing, game join notifications, and the ability to send stickers and voice messages. Some of them even sound pretty neat. I hope they are implemented in a way that allows me to remember they exist.