Why Sony Removed Spam Games After PSN Outage?

In the past several years, the PlayStation Store has seen an influx of low-effort debuts that frequently serve the purpose of just giving up Platinum trophies. Most of these games are reskin or clone types, and sometimes, they are launched in different regional variants to maximize their incidental sales numbers. Although most trophy hunters find such titles interesting, these overwhelming numbers almost obscure all the high-quality indie and major titles from being found on the platform.

TrueTrophies mentioned in a recent interview with IGN that multiple developers spoke up about the poor state of Sony's PS Store. The developers also discussed the Never-ending list of spam games and how easy it seems to get them approved on PlayStation Store. In a secretive move, Sony removed some "spam" titles from the PlayStation Store last weekend after a 24-hour downtime.

Spam games are what players refer to as “eslop” or “shovelware” – basically games that are made with a low effort that somehow find their way onto digital storefronts Spam games are what players refer to as “eslop” or “shovelware” – basically games that are made with a low effort that somehow find their way onto digital storefronts. Some suspect Sony might have acted towards an abrupt removal of a slew of spam games from the storefront to keep the true nature of the outage from being known.

TrueTrophies stated that Sony wiped out the entire game library under the publisher RandomSpin Games, a name that apparently carries notoriety for announcing spam games at an alarming frequency. The very games Sony has wiped out from the PlayStation Store are its own click-and-play types, but littering rather ruining by obsolescence.

This contains low-effort titles such as Body Cam Shooter, Supermarket Simulator, Pro Back Rooms, and Brotherhood. It's one of the handful they claim is still online after the cleansing and back rooms. For a long time, the PlayStation Network included games that appeared to be borderline. At times, it appears that some of the artwork was made by AI. In reality, AI isn't the main issue. The developers are actual individuals; the games are merely mass-produced with minimal thought and effort, resulting in cheap production costs.

Even though there is no overt connection between this random shovelware cleaning and the PSN outage, the timing is suspicious. Unless PSN is seized by a surge of spam games, leading to informal uprisings against Sony until the truth comes out.

Gamers have voiced their opposition to Sony's silence regarding the details of the outage, which they have yet to clarify. Naturally, this has led to various speculations, including the notion that the PSN was hacked (similar to the infamous 23-day PSN outage in 2011) and that the company is trying to cover it up.