Broken PS5 trophies are the reason I won’t pre-order games anymore

The amount of broken PS5 trophies I have pre-ordered this past year or so is honestly a joke. So, I will no longer purchase games ahead of their release.

Broken PS5 trophies are the reason I won’t pre-order games anymore
Sean Lawson

Sean Lawson

Published

I've been burned a lot when it comes to broken PS5 trophies and pre-orders. In the past year, I've picked up four games ahead of their release — all of which have unobtainable PS5 platinums. With such a risky trophy market, it's becoming clear that pre-ordering indie games before you know the platinum will unlock is a dangerous move.

SeanL

I will no longer pre-order PS5 indie games due to broken platinum trophies

While I feel like an ass only targeting indie games, they are the primary issue when it comes to unobtainable trophies that never get resolved. In the last year, I have pre-ordered three indies that have come with unobtainable and bugged trophies. Those are the Coral Island trophies, Whisker Waters trophies, and Spirit of the Island trophies. Back in 2021 I also pre-ordered the Harvest Life trophies which also didn't work out.
After seven long months, Coral Island has received a fix for its broken platinum. While that's amazing, having to wait that amount of time is ridiculous. I expect a game to be fully functioning and it's platinum obtainable from the get-go, I don't think I'm asking for much, but it feels like this is becoming less and less likely to be the case.

Whisker Waters is the most recent burn for me. I saw the trailer (embedded above) on the official PlayStation YouTube channel and knew that I needed to add it to my collection. A chill simulation game where I play as a cat and complete quests for my villagers all while partaking in a spot of fishing? It looked like the perfect game to play after Stellar Blade! Alas, the broken trophy list would stop me from ever playing it.

This year I also pre-ordered those Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered trophies which came with multiple broken trophy lists. Thankfully, it did get all its trophies sorted rather quickly. Aspyr was pretty diligent about getting patches out and making sure everyone was happy. However, Tomb Raider isn't exactly an indie series. So, for this reason alone, I still feel comfortable pre-ordering those bigger games.
When you look at the five games I list above, four of them are actually life sims. Maybe that's a telling sign that instead of outright not pre-ordering indie games, I should avoid pre-ordering life sims. The complexity of life sims may mean that the trophies are more liable to breaking, but perhaps having an embargo on the genre until release is a good idea for trophy hunters.

However, for the likes of Whisker Waters, Spirit of the Island, and Harvest Life, I think their chance of getting fixed has been and gone. It'll be best for me to cut my losses and just sell those games as there is no point of them sitting on my shelf collecting dust. This is just another hard lesson in why pre-orders are a bad idea, especially if you love trophies as much as I do!

What do you guys feel about pre-ordering games before we know what condition the trophies are in? Have you ever been burned like I have? If so, maybe you should check out our unobtainable PS4 platinums guide. Let me know your thoughts on this topic in the comments below!
Written by Sean Lawson
Sean is a Staff Writer who focuses on the geekiest Sony news. He specializes in PlayStation trophies, the best PS Plus games, RPGs, and fighting games. Sean is using this experience to cover Dragon Age The Veilguard, Monster Hunter Wilds, Funko Fusion, and Silent Hill 2 for PS5, all while he still dives into favorite games like Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, and Persona.
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