Sony has seemingly delisted a number of games following an investigation into the prevalence of “spam” titles on digital storefronts.
After an investigation by IGN found differing approaches to quality control across Nintendo, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox stores, players believe they’ve found evidence that Sony has removed some questionable developers from the PlayStation Store.
For example, most games from developer RandomSpin – including Supermarket Simulator Pro, Bodycam Shooter, and Backrooms Inside The Escape, all of which are allegedly thought to use AI and/or recycled assets – have disappeared, leading some to speculate that Sony has responded to criticism.
As detailed on TrueTrophies and PSNProfiles, the developer has released dozens of games in 2024 alone, in some cases releasing multiple games a month, leading some to speculate about the quality of its products.
This issue isn’t unique to just PS5, of course. Just days after the creative director of indie hit Unpacking, Wren Brier, called out Nintendo due to the prominence of copycat games on its Switch eShop, Chinese fans spotted a game called Wukong Sun: Black Legend had popped up, too with misleading artwork to match its name.
Similarly, Poppy Playtime developer Mob Entertainment is suing Google for failing to remove “scam” apps from the Google Play store. In legal papers filed last month, Poppy Playtime‘s creators accused Daigo Game 2020 Inc. of releasing “scam” apps intentionally advertised with names like Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 and Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 well before the instalments had been officially released for mobile devices.
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