Sony Removes Over 1,000 Shovelware Games from the PlayStation Store

by

Okay, so this is pretty wild. I just noticed that all of ThiGamesDE’s games are gone from the PlayStation Store – that’s over 1,100 PS4 and PS5 titles! They’re the folks who made a lot of those super simple, kinda silly games like the Quiz Thiz series and The Jumping Burger. A lot of us used those to quickly snag Platinum Trophies, honestly. Nobody really knows why they were pulled, but there’s been talk that it might have something to do with Sony teaming up with Microsoft and Nintendo to make things safer for players on all platforms. It’s definitely a strange situation.

Sony sometimes removes games from its store, which isn’t common. This usually happens when the game’s online servers are no longer running, like with the game Concord, which was removed just two weeks after release. Sometimes, licenses for the game’s content expire and aren’t renewed, leading to removal. However, it’s currently unclear if that’s why ThiGamesDE’s games were taken down.

Publisher ThiGamesDE Has Entire Library Removed from the PlayStation Store

A PlayStation user named RobThanatos noticed that all of ThiGamesDE’s games have disappeared from the PlayStation Store, and links now lead to an error message. ThiGamesDE was a fairly prolific publisher on the platform, ranking fourth behind eastasiasoft, Ratalaika Games, and Webnetic. Many players consider ThiGamesDE’s games to be low-quality, as most of their titles are simply different versions of Quiz Thiz and The Jumping Burger.

Publisher Number of Games on the PlayStation Store
eastasiasoft 2,018
Ratalaika Games 1,2,79
Webnetic 1,222
ThiGamesDE 1,194

Sony Interactive Entertainment has only the 11th most games published on its own platform.

The news of Sony removing games from the PlayStation Store has been met with mixed reactions. Some fans approve of Sony weeding out what they consider to be low-quality games. However, players who enjoy collecting Platinum Trophies are upset, as games from publisher ThiGamesDE were a relatively easy way to boost their trophy collections. It’s currently unknown whether players will still keep the Platinum Trophies they earned from these games before they were removed.

Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft’s Recent Joint Commitment to Gaming Safety May Be Responsible for this Crackdown

While Sony hasn’t officially said why, it’s probably due to their recent focus on making the PlayStation Store a safer place for users. They recently announced a plan with Microsoft and Nintendo to enforce stricter rules on all their platforms. This plan mainly aims to protect players from harmful content, but it seems to have also led to a broader review of which games are allowed on the store, resulting in the removal of ThiGamesDE’s titles.

Sony is improving the PlayStation Store by removing low-quality, or “shovelware,” games to offer a better experience for users. Nintendo, whose eShop also has a lot of these types of games, might do the same. Microsoft could follow suit with the Microsoft Store, though Xbox generally does a good job of offering quality games, especially through services like Xbox Game Pass.

Read More

2026-01-14 22:37