A PlayStation Rewards Program?

by Greg Miller  

August 5, 2009 - The videogame fan base usually isn't abuzz over the happenings of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but today appears to be the exception. On July 31, 2009, Sony Computer Entertainment America filed a trademark application -- Serial No. 77794416 -- for something called "P.S. Thanks." 

Officially and in giant, government capital letters, the trademark applies to "ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES, NAMELY, INCENTIVE REWARDS PROGRAM GEARED TOWARD QUANTIFYING, IDENTIFYING AND MOTIVATING TOP CONSUMER BASE WITH THE GOAL OF PROMOTION AND SALE OF VIDEO GAME HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE." 

What does that mean exactly? We don't know. Maybe it's some kind of Trophy reward program, maybe it's some kind of special program like Club Nintendo, maybe it's a blimp that flies to your house and drops gifts. We don't know, and messages left with Sony representatives were not immediately returned. 

We'll update this story if any more information becomes available. 

Update: We've received an official comment from a Sony representative regarding the above news. The comment is as follows: "As you know, we have a long history of creating unique loyalty programs such as PlayStation Underground which started with the original PlayStation and has evolved into the Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP). We continue to look for ways to expand this program and simply are evaluating new naming conventions for this evolution."