Sony PlayStation has made two key decisions recently – but the reaction to those from the public is likely to be quite different.
On the one hand, navigating the PlayStation store has been getting a lot better recently as Sony has been removing thousands of cheap and nasty (and often AI-made) ‘shovelware’ games that have plagued the store in recent years, with publishers pushing that crap getting kicked out of the store.
Many of these games survive because they sell to one specific demographic – trophy hunters – who can earn platinum trophies on these ultra-short games very quickly.
This week, Sony is going further and has begun enforcing stricter guidelines that has reportedly resulted in Brazilian developer Afil Games having their partnership with Sony terminated and games removed from the store according to Gamespot.
The move has been widely applauded and it’s hoped others like Nintendo and Valve will follow suit and clean up their storefronts as well.
On the other hand, Sony President Hideaki Nishino has confirmed that while the company has pulled back drastically in terms of its live-service game ambitions, they still intend to continue pursuing more efforts in the field. He tells Famitsu (via WCCFTech):
“We believe that live service games are content that attracts users on a global level, so we want to continue to revitalize the market through both first-party and third-party content.
We are not only focusing on promoting new releases, but also considering what we can do with older titles in the medium to long term. Also, this year we are planning to release our own live service title, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, and we hope everyone will enjoy it.
With live service games, it’s important to continuously provide something. The genre itself is relatively new, and I think many people are trying various things, so we also want to continue to take on challenges within that context.”
While “Helldivers II” was a major success, Sony’s live-service push has been plagued by failures, both high-profile (“Concord”) and barely known (“Foamstars”), resulting in the company cancelling a number of live-service titles it had in development.
Sony has also come under fire for deleting over 550 digital movies and TV shows from customers’ accounts without offering refunds. The reasoning comes down to an expired licensing agreement with Studio Canal. Titles will be removed on September 1st.
The news follows a busy week in gaming for Sony’s rivals – from the Steam Machine announcement that has seen the knives come out in some corners for Valve, to talk of Xbox studio closures and price hikes.
