Summary
ThePlayStationStore has seen a quiet but much-needed shake-up this month, with several developers and their entire game catalogs suddenly delisted. While Sony has yet to make an official announcement, the recentPlayStationStore removals are targeted towards shovelware and intentionally deceptive games.
For years, thePlayStation Store has been flooded with low-effort shovelwareand scam games, many of which are blatant rip-offs of popular PC titles. These games are often created quickly using cheap assets or AI-generated content, then marketed as console versions of hit indie or multiplayer games from Steam. The result is a cluttered storefront that majorly reduces visibility for genuine games, while also deceiving customers who may not be wary of such fraudulent endeavors.
Just earlier this month,Sony increased the wishlist size for the PlayStation Store, and now, the gaming giant has exiled three developers, namely Adventure Games, Gaming Dev, and Grizzly Games, from the storefront.PSNProfiles recently spottedthat every single game listed under these three labels has vanished from the PlayStation Store. Sony’s ban hammer hasn’t been slammed out of the blue, though, as these developers published titles that blatantly copied or mimicked popular games likeREPO,Escape the Backrooms,Lethal Company,Bodycam,The Exit 8, and more to mislead PlayStation users into purchasing them.
Gaming Dev
Grizzly Games
Some of the scam games recentlyremoved from the PlayStation StoreincludeSupermarket Simulator 2025by Adventure Games,Operation BodycamandExit 9 Metroby Gaming Dev, andSCP Foundation Universe HorrorandVoidCraft Island Chroniclesby Grizzly Games. It’s worth mentioning that the last one is not to be confused with GrizzlyGames, the developer behindThronefallandIslanders.
Sony’s removal of these developers is a welcome step, and interestingly, this crackdown follows a similar one earlier this year, whenRandomSpin Games was booted from the PlayStation Storein February 2025 for comparable infractions. While it’s not clear if Sony has introduced any new vetting processes, this marks the most aggressive move the company has made since then. Still, manyrip-off games remain on the PlayStation Store, and new ones continue to appear faster than Sony seems able to address them. Hopefully, stricter curation and more proactive content moderation will be implemented for the PlayStation Store in the months ahead to better promote legitimate games.
