Fans of PlayStation have been pleading for some intervention from the console manufacturer for quite a few months as the plague of cheap platinum trophies and shovelware have clogged the PlayStation Network stores. For fans of the trophy system, PlayStation have been infuriated by the devaluing of the trophies that they’ve earned through games with merit, Elden Ring, God Of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and more, because of shovelware such as My Name Is Mayo, The Jumping Burger, and more. Worse than that, indie developers have been disgusted by the way the store is blocked up with this rubbish because it pushes their titles, games that they’ve put years of their life into creating, rapidly down the new release list, only to be buried in the store. Now, first rumblings of PlayStation interfering are emerging from the website, DexDotExe.
DexDotExe claims to have obtained a letter issued by PlayStation for developers noting that reskinned games, shovelware, and other games to simply provide players with a cheap platinum trophy will soon be coming under more intense scrutiny. The site claims to have received the information from an anonymous source, where PlayStation says,
SIE strives to ensure that customers can search and discover the full breadth of experiences on PlayStation, and that partners have a fair means of being discovered. When partners oversaturate or “spam” PlayStation™Store with many variants of the same type of content, it can negatively impact both the customer and partner experience.
Partner Requirements & Allowances
When SIE reviews the content submitted to PlayStation™Store, products that have the following characteristics are identified as “spam” or “repetitive” content:
Products whose functionality and/or assets are copied or are not meaningfully different from products already published on PlayStation™Store, irrespective of the publisher of record.
Multiple concepts and product variants, published by individual partners, that have duplicative functionality or experiences, differentiated only by minor variances of functionality or assets.
– Where possible, partners should consider aggregating small, similar content experiences into a single product, using in-game commerce to expand or extend the experience.
– As an example, supplying different trophies for each product is not enough to differentiate content.
The report claims that if developers are found breaching the rules, any of the following
- Content Excluded from PlayStation™Store Merchandising
- Discoverability on PlayStation™Store is restricted.
- Content does not feature in automatic merchandising placements, such as the “New Releases” strand.
- Content Delisted from PlayStation™Store
- Content is not searchable and can only be accessed via direct link on web and mobile stores.
- Impact on CertOps Process
- Content is not permitted to proceed to publication until policy violations are rectified.
- Review slot availability is affected.
- Content Takedown
- Content is removed from PlayStation™Store until policy violations are rectified.
- PlayStation®Partners Account Suspension or Termination
- Multiple rejections or takedowns may result in the suspension or eventual termination of a partner’s PlayStation Partners account.
- Suspension limits the ability to submit and publish new content. Existing published content can remain on PlayStation™Store, if that content complies with SIE policies.
- Termination of an account results in the removal of all content from PlayStation™Store.
Though this information is yet to have been confirmed by any other individuals or outlets, if true this is a huge moment for players and developers on the PlayStation platform.
