Several some players consider lackluster compensation. Service was fully restored in the evening hours of February 9, lasting almost a full 24 hours.

And on PSN's revival, some players found a changed storefront: as initially reported by Eurogamer, it appears Sony has removed several shovelware games from its storefront. The games removed include several titles by RandomSpin Games, for example, developers of Alien Destroyer, Tokyo Run, and Funny Truck. RandomSpin typically releases games every few months, many of which, Eurogamer says, are suspected of using AI-generated or recycled assets, but they're not the only dev affected. Breakthrough Games and Zakym, studios that typically release multiple budget titles a month, have also allegedly had their games removed.

Sony Has Allegedly Been Removing "Fake" Games In Silence

Several "Shovelware" Games Have Been Affected

While I haven't played any of these games myself, their release cadence is suspect. Even the smallest, simplest games can take years in development when made from scratch; putting out multiple titles per month just screams quantity over quality. Some of RandomSpin's games also use popular titles or concepts to drum up interest in a sort of video game version of clickbait: things like Backrooms Inside the Escape, Horror Stories, or Run Show Quest, which is a kind of Fall Guys clone.

It's worth noting, though, that there's no obvious connection between the outage and the sudden removal of these games. Some believe the sudden deletions are the result of recent media criticism focused on the amount of shovelware on digital storefronts. It's a common problem these days: when a game gets popular, hundreds of clones naturally appear. Some of them result from a labor of love, and actually have something new to offer the genre; others are cheap copies designed to draw in accidental purchases.

Other Platforms Are Having The Same Issue With Spam Titles On The Storefront

Google & Nintendo Have Similar Issues

And PlayStation isn't the only platform affected; mockbusters also run rampant on the Nintendo eShop, including the highly publicized Wukong Sun: Black Legend, a side-scrolling platformer aping off Black Myth Wukong's popularity. Mobile app stores are probably the worst offenders, though; search "Grand Theft Auto" or on the Google Play Store, and you'll encounter any number of asset flips with similar names and artwork.

According to another Eurogamer report last month, Mob Entertainment, developer of the Poppy Playtime series, is in the process of suing Google for failing to remove a "scam" clone using the Poppy Playtime name from their mobile app store. The game has since been taken down. This may have been a deciding factor in Sony's alleged choice to delete shovelware from its storefront: avoiding similar lawsuits.

Whatever the case, if these games really are asset flips that take advantage of players by imitating more popular, triple-A titles, then there's no real downside to their removal. However, if Sony is clearing out its storefront, its methods are worth interrogation. Are they targeting known shovelware developers, going by reviews, or using a more automated method of detection? There may be a lot of garbage on the PlayStation 5 Store, but not every budget game is worth deletion.

Source: Eurogamer (1, 2)