Every game from publisher ThiGamesDE has been removed from the PlayStation Store, with a total of 1,194 PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games disappearing. ThiGamesDE is primarily known for publishing shovelware games like the Quiz Thiz series and The Jumping Burger, which are often used by PlayStation players to earn easy Platinum Trophies for their account. The reason for their sudden disappearance from the PlayStation Store is unclear, but it may be related to Sony's recent partnership with Microsoft and Nintendo to pursue greater player safety on the companies' platforms.
Sony is no stranger to unexpectedly pulling games from its platform on rare occasions. Often, games are delisted after their servers have been shut down, as was the case infamously with Concord being pulled from sale after only two weeks on the market. In other cases, games are delisted due to licenses for the IP or other materials within the game expiring and the publisher declining to renew them. However, it's not clear if this is the case with ThiGamesDE's library.
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Publisher ThiGamesDE Has Entire Library Removed from the PlayStation Store
As reported by X user RobThanatos, ThiGamesDE's entire PlayStation library can no longer be accessed on the PlayStation Store, with links to the games' pages returning an error message. The German publisher had the 4th most games published on the platform, coming in just behind publishers eastasiasoft, Ratalaika Games, and Webnetic. Players who are familiar with ThiGamesDE's library likely consider their titles shovelware, with the majority of the games being variations of the Quiz Thiz and The Jumping Burger series.
|
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.
While some PlayStation fans are reacting positively to the news, stating their support for Sony filtering out what they view as low-effort content from the storefront, achievement hunters might be disappointed at the removal of ThiGamesDE's library. The publisher's games were seen as an easy way for PlayStation players to earn Platinum Trophies and inflate the prestige of their PlayStation account. It's unclear if the removal of these games will affect the Platinum Trophies of the players who had earned them before their delisting.
Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft's Recent Joint Commitment to Gaming Safety May Be Responsible for this Crackdown
Although there isn't any explicit confirmation, it's likely that Sony's justification for removing all of ThiGamesDE's library from the PlayStation Store comes from the company's recent commitment to supporting user safety on its platform. In partnership with Microsoft and Nintendo, the three companies jointly released a statement outlining this endeavor and their plan to enforce stricter guidelines across each company's platform. While this plan seems more geared toward the safety of players regarding what kinds of content they can interact with on each platform, it appears that a wider crackdown on what titles are allowed on storefronts is an effect of this new policy.
It's possible that more shovelware publishers have titles pulled from the PlayStation Store as Sony moves to provide a more curated storefront for users under this new safety policy. The Nintendo eShop is another platform that is infamous for being overloaded with shovelware games, so Nintendo may follow Sony's lead by cracking down on these games as part of this partnership. Similarly, the Microsoft Store may see a purge of shovelware titles as well in the near future, though Xbox has generally done a better job of curating its offerings with services like Xbox Game Pass to streamline the delivery of high-quality titles to players on the platform.