Even after major hardware manufacturers (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft) have taken all-important steps to curtail the flow of low-effort games, including complete delistings, new “developers” and “publishers” popping up left and right, the battle against shovelware, spam games, and AI slop seems never-ending.
For now, Sony seems to be the most aggressive in its bid to clean up its PlayStation Store ecosystem, as after the recent sweep targeting the big publisher, there appears to be a more significant sweep that has taken out more like this one.
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As first seen by Delisted Games, a website dedicated to covering titles from digital storefronts, console publisher GOGAME, VRCFORGE Studios, and Welding Bite (formerly operating as RandomSpin Games) has been removed from PSN.
Among the titles from these so-called publishers are Jesus Simulator and Card Shop Game Store, a rip-off of the one-time Steam exclusive TCG Card Shop Simulator.
In fact, a cursory search for any of those titles leads to an error page on the PlayStation Store website, indicating that the titles have indeed been removed.
Regarding GOGAME and VRCFORGE, the two “studios” had yet to release titles, per the PSN profile forums, that were set to debut before their closure. Searching for those titles leads to the same error page.
Even with the move by PlayStation, these “studios” still have Nintendo and Microsoft
As great as it is to see at least one storefront removed from these titles, the reality is that developers have two more storefronts on the Nintendo eShop and the Microsoft Xbox Store, as well as a third on Steam, where they can continue to release them.
As for Nostra Games, the Cyprus-based studio responsible for the nearly 700 titles that were part of the recent delisting wave, they released a statement outlining their plans to do the same.
“Unfortunately, the PS Store has removed our games, and we are unable to provide the exact reason because it was not shared with us,” Nostra Games' statement read in part. “For now, we plan to continue releasing on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Steam. It was as unexpected for us as it was for you, we planned to release games in the coming years, and you've seen some of them, but unfortunately, things turned out this way.”
As we said above, it's really a game of whack-a-mole, and until some more stringent guidelines are established, removing a studio or a handful is really only the tip of the iceberg.
For example, if the Card Shop Game Store no longer exists, there's another TCG title waiting to be released in the form of Card Shop Simulator Manager, another AI rip-off of the real thing. This is how things have gone.
- brand
-
Sony
- Original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
-
$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (digital),
- operating system
-
Orbis OS
- processor
-
Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- resolve
-
720p – 8K
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