Sony removes hundreds of “shovelware” games from its digital storefront originating from one developer

Sony has reportedly removed hundreds of ThiGames games from its PlayStation Store.

As spotted by PushSquare, visiting ThiGames’ website shows that most, if not all, links to the scores of games listed there no longer work, suggesting the games have been removed from sale on the Sony storefront.

The games – considered by some as “shovelware” as they’re churned out quickly, flood the store, and typically offer simplistic or shallow experiences – are often considered a nuisance, but some players use them to beef up their trophy count. Our sister site Eurogamer offered one such example with The Jumping Taco: Turbo, and linked to a video showing numerous unlocked Trophies, starting with 30 seconds of play.

Up until the wipe, only three developers had more games listed on the PS4 and PS5 stores than ThiGames: Eastasiasoft, Ratalaika Games, and Webnetic, according to trophy hunter, Rob Thanatos. But as GameDiscoverCo’s Simon Carless cautions, some outlets are listing five different PlayStation regional SKUs for each game, and suggests the real estimate is closer to around 150 games. Nonetheless, it’s thought ThiGames was grossing almost $10 million per annum.

“Won’t speculate as to why Sony ended up doing this, but I do think ‘[more than] 1000 games’ being cited is wrong for ThiGames, since it’s counting five different PlayStation regional SKUs for each game,” Carless wrote on LinkedIn. “GameDiscoverCo estimates have them as releasing 153 games and grossing almost $10m (!).”

Neither ThiGames nor Sony has commented publicly on the reports to date.