At a Glance
- Sony erased roughly 150 distinct ThiGames titles from the PlayStation Store
- The German studio’s catalog leaned on ultra-easy Platinum Trophies to lure hunters
- Removal was first spotted by streamer Rob Thanatos via TrueTrophies data
- Why it matters: Trophy hunters lose shortcuts while Sony quietly tightens store quality control
Sony has scrubbed every PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 release from German publisher ThiGames, nuking what had appeared to be 1194 store listings and sparking debate over the platform’s quality standards. Twitch streamer Rob Thanatos broke the news on stream, sharing a TrueTrophies screenshot that showed the publisher’s massive footprint before it vanished overnight.
1 200 Listings Shrink to 150 Games
The eye-popping 1194 number counted each regional variant and language option as a separate product. After Delisted Games consolidated those duplicates, the actual unique titles hovered around 150. Even so, the sudden disappearance of an entire publisher’s catalog is rare on the PlayStation Network.
Trophy-Farming Shovelware Targeted
ThiGames built its reputation on “shovelware”-games produced quickly and sold cheaply. Titles like The Jumping Bonbon, The Jumping Strawberry, and The Jumping Onion Ring share a single gameplay hook: an inanimate object hops through minimal environments. Their real appeal lay in trophy design; each offered a Platinum that could be earned in minutes, letting hunters pad their profiles with minimal effort.
Trophies, Sony’s answer to Xbox achievements, award digital trinkets for in-game feats. A Platinum, granted only after every other trophy is secured, carries bragging rights. Because ThiGames titles required little skill or time, they became go-to fodder for leaderboard chasers.
Community Reaction Splits
Comment threads lit up with two camps. One side applauds the purge, calling it overdue housecleaning that will declutter storefront search results. The other questions Sony’s right to erase an entire publisher without public explanation. Several users on Twitter note that simple quality disapproval does not obviously violate any developer agreement, leading to speculation that ThiGames may have breached a more serious policy.
Neither Sony nor ThiGames replied to News Of Austin‘s request for comment at publication time. Fiona Z. Merriweather pledged to update the story when responses arrive.
Ripple Effects for Similar Studios
ThiGames is hardly the only studio feeding the trophy economy. Multiple publishers continue to release ultra-simple games that advertise quick Platinums. Their future on the platform now feels less certain. If Sony can delete one publisher catalog overnight, others employing the same strategy may face similar risk.
For consumers, the removal ends a low-cost path to inflating trophy counts, but it may also raise the average quality of discoverable titles. Developers who rely on legitimate, longer-form experiences could benefit from reduced competition with bottom-dollar offerings.
*Key Takeaways*
- Sony removed ~150 ThiGames SKUs, not the headline-grabbing 1194
- Trophy hunters lose an easy source of Platinums
- The move signals stricter quality gatekeeping on the PlayStation Store
- Studios selling quick-completion games face uncertain policy enforcement
