It’s not just you. The PlayStation Store is a little more bearable of late. It hasn’t magically gained a bunch of new, amazing games. In fact, it’s the opposite. Sony has seemingly banished publisher ThiGamesDE from the store, which was responsible for high-quality content like The Jumping Burger and 1,000+ others just like it.
Like a kid in a clothing store
That, if you missed the sarcasm, is what’s known as shovelware. Extremely low-effort rip-offs of ‘real’ titles that appeal exclusively to the folk who care about the arbitrary number of trophies on their profile populated the store, burying the hard work of other developers. They even have the gall to charge users a few bucks for their games.
According to Notebookcheck, ThiGamesDE was responsible for around 1,194 games on the store, earning it the title of the fourth largest publisher on Sony’s platform. It’s still unclear whether Sony delisted the games or if the publisher had a change of heart and just did us all a favour. Common sense tells us it’s the former option.
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It’s a much wider issue that also plagues Steam and Nintendo’s eShop. It’s arguably an even worse experience for the consumer when you consider Nintendo’s aversion to modern-day technology, which made the eShop a pain to navigate even before wading through piles of AI slop.
While we may celebrate the death of ThiGamesDE, it’s like a hydra. For every dodgy The Jumping Melon Rush 2 (no, really) that PlayStation cuts off, two more take its place. They may not come from ThiGamesDE, but they will from somewhere. To address what has become an issue for the PlayStation Store, Sony needs to stem the flow at the root by enabling a more robust verification process. One that involves humans, preferably.
