An unprecedented curation action was carried out by Sony on its digital store, PlayStation Store. The company removed a total of 1,194 games published by ThiGamesDE, a developer known for releasing titles of low technical quality and repetitive content, popularly classified as “shovelware”. The mass removal affected the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 catalogs in all regions where the platform operates.
The measure, effective this week, prevents new users from purchasing the publisher’s titles. However, Sony guaranteed that players who had already purchased any of the removed games will continue to have access to them in their digital libraries and can download them at any time.
The decision represents a significant effort by the Japanese giant to improve the overall quality and browsing experience in its store. The large number of shovelware games made it difficult to discover independent and larger-budget productions, polluting the new releases sections and search results, which generated constant criticism from the community.
What are shovelware games
The term “shovelware” is used in the games industry to describe software, especially games, that are developed with minimal effort and investment, aiming for a quick and easy profit. Esses titles often reuse the same graphics and sound resources (assets), employ extremely simple game mechanics, and are produced on a large scale. ThiGamesDE specialized in this business model, creating series of games such as “Quiz The strategy was clear: attract a specific audience, known as “trophy hunters”, who seek to obtain platinum achievements quickly and cheaply. Cada one of these games could be completed in a few hours, or even minutes, and was sold for very low prices, exploiting these players’ desire to increase their profile statistics on the PlayStation Network.
The rationale behind mass removal
Although Sony has not issued an official statement detailing the specific reasons that led to the complete removal of the ThiGamesDE catalog, market analysts and members of the gaming community associate the action directly with the company’s new stance regarding the curation of its store. The objective is to raise the quality standard of the products offered, making the PlayStation Store a more reliable and interesting environment for consumers.
In recent years, the exponential growth in the number of digital releases has meant that titles of dubious quality have occupied a disproportionate amount of space on new release lists, often overshadowing more creative and well-crafted independent projects. Essa situation was a constant source of frustration both for developers who invested time and resources in their creations and for consumers looking for new gaming experiences.
The main series that disappeared from the store
With the deletion, several ThiGamesDE product lines were completely eliminated from the digital platform. The most notorious series accumulated hundreds of practically identical versions.
Among the clearest examples were the more than 100 variations of the “Quiz Thiz” series, which covered geographic and cultural themes with basic-level questions and answers.
Another popular line among trophy hunters was “The Jumping”, with dozens of games that used food and random objects as protagonists in an auto-jump mechanic.
Series such as “Memory Thiz”, “Puzzle Thiz” and “Flag
Repercussion among trophy hunters
The news was met with mixed reactions from the trophy hunter community. A portion of these players used ThiGamesDE titles as a tool to quickly inflate their platinum trophy counts.
For this group, the removal represents the end of an easy and cheap source of achievements, although the trophies already obtained will remain registered in their profiles on PlayStation Network.
Despite this, most players, including many trophy hunters, celebrated the move. The consensus on specialized forums and social networks is that the practice of releasing low-quality games harms the platform’s image and devalues the effort required to obtain platinums in more complex and well-developed games.
A movement aligned with safety on platforms
Recently, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo reaffirmed a partnership to promote a safer gaming environment. The main focus of the collaboration is the protection of minors, content moderation and the provision of parental control tools.
Although shovelware games do not directly violate these security rules, removing low-quality content can be seen as an action in line with this broader commitment to caring for the user experience, ensuring a higher quality and trustworthy ecosystem.
The future of curation at PlayStation Store
This drastic action by Sony could signal a new era of stricter criteria for publishing games on PlayStation Store, encouraging developers and publishers to focus more on the quality and originality of their products rather than just the volume of releases.
Developer community response
The reaction among developers, especially independent ones, was mostly positive. Muitos sees removing excess shovelware as an opportunity for their projects to gain more visibility.
Before this cleanup, it was common for creative and innovative games to be buried on “new release” lists by the avalanche of low-effort titles, making discovery for consumers a chore.
