The PlayStation Store seems to finally be catching up with the Xbox and Steam marketplaces by allowing users to submit reviews for games that they’ve played. That doesn’t mean ratings based on a five-star scale which have already been present in the PlayStation Store since last year when this feature was added but instead means actual written reviews for games. This new feature appears to only be slowly rolling out to certain users on an invite-only basis, and the reviews that are being left aren’t easily visible to everyone, but the feature is definitely in the works.
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A Reddit user, cusman78, first brought attention to the new feature within a PlayStation subreddit where they pointed out that it was not possible to leave reviews for certain PlayStation games if you were invited to do so. The user in question said that they’d gotten an email asking them to leave a review for Helldivers 2 with a screenshot of the review interface shared as well. Reviewers are apparently able to give the game a rating out of five stars, title their reviews, and then write the review itself. There’s also an option to note whether or not the reviews include spoilers which would presumably blur out the text with a warning if marked.
Whether or not you’re actually able to leave a review or even see the reviews seems to be hit or miss, however. Some users in the thread said that they’d gotten similar emails for different games, but apparently owning a game physically vs. digitally is apparently a factor at this time regarding whether or not you can leave a review. Others said that they were able to see the written reviews at times on the web version of the PlayStation Store, but for me, the Helldivers 2 page has only the star ratings with no user reviews shown at this time.
This is a feature that’s long been present on Steam and Xbox interfaces and will presumably be a good thing for PlayStation users depending on how it’s implemented. People have already suggested that the reviews should show how many hours the reviewer has played the game similar to what Steam does so that people can know how much time the person has invested into a game.
There’s also the risk of reviews being used for off-topic or less-than-helpful purposes, however. Review bombing on Steam is a very real thing (though the opposite happens sometimes, too) and makes reviews basically obsolete for however long those campaigns last. As we’ve seen from the Xbox Store, people often just use reviews there to complain about things or voice their very specific opinions.
It’s unclear what the rollout plan looks like for PlayStation Store reviews at this time, but keep an eye on your inbox in case you’re invited to review a game you own.
