Sony takes a stand against paid platinum games on PS4, PS5 PSN Store

Sony appears to be implementing changes to the PSN Store amidst the shovelware surge currently dominating the PS4, PS5 store pages. However, this may have a larger and more detrimental impact on smaller devs.

Sony is currently working on fixing the paid platinum issue that is rampant on the PS5 and PS4 PSN Store pages right now. We recently talked about a game called 'Press X for Trophies' that caused quite a discussion about games with easy lists, like The Sheep P trophies and Frogo trophies. PlayStation may have stepped in, but this "fix" may actually negatively impact smaller indie developers.

Do you hate the paid platinum games?

PSN Store fix may impact small indie game developers

Spotted by PushSquare, Sony has implemented changes that clean up the PS Store homepage for anyone browsing the catalogue of games. Usually, the homepage would be overflowing with these quick and easy paid platinum games, where it would be a struggle to find any actual games hidden amongst them. It seems now that Sony has cleared this up, more substantial games can be found with ease, with the likes of Stray, Cult of the Lamb, Digimon Survive, MultiVersus, and Two Point Campus all popping up on the homepage.

Whilst we might not necessarily agree with the paid-platinum games due to their whole purpose being to provide players with platinum trophies that require no effort, who are we or Sony to decide what games people want to play? Indeed, people may enjoy the games, developers have found a way to make easy money, and players are totally free to grab the games that make them happy. However, the PSN store does look a lot cleaner and now gives rise to indies that aren't reskins republished eight times across every region and platform.

Paid Platinums are no longer dominating the PSN Store

This fix may remove these paid platinums from the homepage, but it may also affect small indie developers who release great games at affordable prices. Their games may get grouped amongst these quick and easy platinums, hiding them from being found and played by players who would genuinely love and appreciate the hard work these developers have put in. This fix is good as long as it is temporary, perhaps something more efficient can be put in place that makes everyone happy? A way to customise the store homepage might do the job, with the player able to select the types of AAA games and indies they are interested in.

For anyone who still wants to play these paid platinum games, you can still quite easily find them if you search around the PSN Store for a few moments. What do you guys make of all this platinum drama? Are you happy to see Sony address the situation and put out some form of a fix?

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Written by Sean Lawson

Sean is a Staff Writer with a focus on the geekiest Sony news. He writes stories about unobtainable PlayStation trophies, the best PS Plus games, as well as RPGs and Fighting games. He is also excited for Tekken 8, Dragon Age Dreadwolf, Baldur's Gate 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2 to launch on PS5. Sean’s favourite games include Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, Tekken, and Persona.