Sony has launched the PlayStation Advent Calendar 2025! They do this every year, and it is a nice festive event that runs until December 24 and gives players daily chances to win prizes, collect tickets, and unlock exclusive rewards.
The event itself is full of mini-games, challenges, and store credits to win, but one part of the calendar is causing a big reaction online. Every day, you can win big prizes, and you get one guaranteed PSN avatar… that appears to be AI-generated.
Many PlayStation players are not happy, and the backlash is spreading really quickly across forums and social media.
What Is the PlayStation Advent Calendar 2025?
The Advent Calendar is a PlayStation holiday website where players log in each day to complete small tasks and earn tickets. These tickets can then be spent on daily prize draws.
Each day you can win a main prize (such as a 12-month Membership for PlayStation Plus Premium), and additional smaller prizes, for example, 20€ store gift cards or things like that.
On top of that, every day you redeem a ticket, you automatically receive an exclusive PSN avatar, and this is where the controversy begins!
AI-Generated PSN Avatars
The instant reward, “PSN avatars”, is what started a massive backlash. Players quickly noticed things such as:
- Strange lighting
- Inconsistent anatomy
- And even gibberish Japanese characters behind the “Neon Brawler” avatar… all clear signs of AI generation.
Hundreds of forum comments describe them as “lazy garbage“, “generic slop“, “NFT-level nonsense“, “worse than nothing“… Some artists even said it is work they would be fired for.
The community reaction is overwhelmingly negative, especially because this comes from a company as large and wealthy as Sony.
At the heart of the backlash is a simple frustration. Sony is a company with decades of iconic characters, a massive library of official artwork, and the budget to pay real artists for original creations. Instead, players are being given avatars that look obviously AI-generated, with none of the personality or craft fans expect. Those are not even iconic PlayStation characters such as Ellie, Aloy, or others!
This stings even more because the Advent Calendar already asks players to watch ads, complete tasks, and engage daily, so receiving what many describe as “AI slop” feels cheap and even a bit disrespectful.
Only the Beginning?
For some, it is not just about the avatars themselves but what they represent. There is a growing worry that if Sony is comfortable using AI for something as small as PSN avatars now, this might be the beginning of a larger trend. The question players keep asking is, if they are doing this here, what comes next?
Some people also pointed out that Sony did something similar last year in Europe. A set of AI-ish avatars was given out, but it was less obvious, and now the practice is back and bigger. This time, players are not letting it slide.
The PlayStation Advent Calendar 2025 should have been a fun, festive event full of mini-games and rewards. But the AI-generated PSN avatars overshadowed the whole thing.
Sony has not responded to the backlash yet, and they might never do so, but one thing is clear: players do not want AI art as their holiday reward!
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