Sony’s attempts to purge the PlayStation Store of AI slop has only been partially successful, as Jesus: The Journey looks like it could be the worst game on PS5.
You would think it would be the easiest thing in the world for Sony, Nintendo, Steam, and others to keep control over what does and doesn’t appear in their online stores, but for whatever reason they seem unwilling or incapable to stem the flood of cheaply made shovelware and AI slop.
There was a broad attempt last year, to crack down on hentai games on the Nintendo eShop and Steam, but how the games even made it on there is a mystery. The only obvious answer is that publishers don’t check the games before they add them and just rely on removing them afterwards – if they can be bothered.
Sony were pretty quick about nuking the shameful The Last Of Us clone from a few years ago and now they’ve begun a new assault on misleading and copyright-infringing games, although one that previously featured Nathan Drake from Uncharted is still up, after merely changing the main character.
We’re sure you’ve seen the sort of titles in question before, as they usually have names that are confusingly similar to proper games or blatantly rip-off assets from them. They’re always suspiciously cheap and often with screenshots that make the game look a lot better than it actually is.
One typical example is 28 Floors: Outbreak, which isn’t out yet but until Sony started its purge had a key art image featuring what was clearly Nathan Drake from Uncharted. A day later though and that image has mysteriously swapped the main character for a generic looking army guy.
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The game, from everyone’s favourite publisher Witenovastudio OÜ, features screenshots that make it look like some kind of Resident Evil knock-off, although whether they’re actually from the game itself we wouldn’t like to say.
While that game managed to stay on the PlayStation Store just by changing its key art, others have dodged the problem in a different way. Jesus Simulator was removed by Sony, but it was immediately replaced by Jesus: The Journey, no doubt hoping to take advantage of the topicality of the season.
They both seem to be different games, from different publishers, but The Journey is clearly some sort of superhero game that’s been repurposed for the occasion, since Jesus is portrayed with laser beam eyes as he flies around a modern day city.
Hundreds of games were removed from PlayStation Store over the weekend, and thousands have been expunged this year alone, with the entire back catalogue of VRCForge, Welding Byte, and GoGame being punted into the sun.
However, the questions remains as to why Sony can’t stop them appearing on the store in the first place. They must check games in some way, to ensure they don’t feature offensive content or hardcore pornography, but anything lower level seems to slip through with ease.
Although perhaps the bigger question is who’s buying any of this stuff, since it looks like such an obvious con. They might be cheap, but if you can’t find anything better to play on PlayStation 5 than Supermarket CEO Simulator, Water Blast Shooter – Wet Gun, Card Shop Game Store: TCG Simulator, and Watermelon Fruits Puzzle you’re not trying hard enough.
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