Over a thousand games from a single developer have been suddenly removed from the PlayStation store in what appears to be a massive move by Sony to shift shovelware games off the PS5 and PS5 store.
The developer in question was ThiGames, which prior to the wipe yesterday was the fourth highest ranked developer on the PlayStation Store in terms of quantity. According to RobThanatos who first spotted the change, all of ThiGames released games have been totally removed from the store. The only exception being trophies tied to these titles, which remain present to those who unlocked them.
As of writing, there has been no statement from either Sony or ThiGames as to why this widespread removal of games has happened. It is, however, worth noting that ThiGames is known for games of a particular quality. Take The Jumping Fries, in which you play fries and jump around. See also The Jumping Taco, The Jumping Hot Dog, The Jumping Soda, and The Jumping Taco TURBO. Eat your heart out, Street Fighter 2.
As for why these games had a playerbase? Well, if you refer to the video above you’ll find a full platinum trophy guide for The Jumping Taco TURBO. You may notice that the video is 95 seconds in length. That is because the trophy lists attached to these games are incredibly simple, in The Jumping Taco’s case a collection of ‘Jump x times’ milestones. As such, these games (now removed) were valuable to those keen to inflate their PlayStation trophy collection.
This is not the first time Sony has removed shovelware games from its PS5 store. Roughly a year ago, the company took action against Randomspin. That developer was suspected of using AI and/or recycled assets, and was quietly removed. It too was releasing a massive number of games within a relatively short period of time, much like ThiGames.
Would you be happy to see similar action taken by Sony on other developers on the PlayStation Store? Let us know below!
