A number of games have recently disappeared from Sony’s PlayStation Store leading to speculation that they were removed by Sony, according to a report from Eurogamer Monday. The games in question have been referred to as spam or “eslop,” games that rely heavily on AI and have misleading names and descriptions to attract gamers.
Sony didn’t immediately respond to a request for confirmation on the removal of the games.
These games were the subject of a report from IGN earlier in the month detailing the current problematic trend primarily affecting the PS Store and the Nintendo eShop. A small number of developers, usually consisting of just one person, flood both stores with low-cost games that sound similar to popular games and use generative AI images to come off as having cutting-edge graphics. This is intended to entice gamers looking for a deal on games.
These eslop titles typically use assets from other games or free assets available from game developer tools and are slapped together to create an experience not worth the low cost charged. Since the games are sold for such a low price, the goal for developers is to sell a large number of copies before people catch on.
Also sometimes called “AI slop,” developers of these games take advantage of the certification process to bring their games to the storefronts with little oversight from the store owners. Sony’s and Nintendo’s stores reportedly get flooded with these games while Microsoft’s Store is a bit more of a challenge to release games onto. Similarly, Steam has so many games being added that attempting to release multiple titles fails to get any attention from PC gamers.