Sony Reportedly taking steps to ban Shovelware

[stpatty]

Good.

[Jelly Soup]

I've been saying for years that the leaderboard is a pure numbers game when you get near the top so every junk one point trophy counts. I've gotten side-eyed for it each time. I'm finding it viscerally satisfying that a bunch of you are either coming around to this or dropping the facade.

 

I'm down with the change. Certainly won't see me complaining about not having to skip through 100+ instances of Stoke games when on the PS5 store. But whatever damage this has done to the leaderboards is done and the fallout is going to stretch on for some years. There are already multi-system hunters in Discord who are excited for the change, since straight removing the source for piles of achievements means anyone who didn't get/do them is now permanently that much behind the people who did in the aforementioned numbers game.

[TJ_Solo]

35 minutes ago, Han_the_Dragon said:

Fair enough.

 

Yes, it's unlikely, that they will talk openly about it, but by the letter, they also talk about delisting shovelware, so, if it's really true, I expect to see it happen in the psn store, not just behind backs talk.

 

I actually only decided to post because people are starting to be somewhat "hyped" (I guess) about this when there was nothing solid about it. And as I mentioned it, Sony currently has several of this shovelware on sale too..

 

But apparently some publishers are putting some weight in this info, so, it should be true to some extent.

 

 

Yeah, some people are really invested in this. 

If the post is true then I don't see these "crap" games going away. There would be fewer repeats. The game makers would be forced to make an acceptible amount of changes between games. The games could still be "crap" but at least there wouldn't be 10+ different games with copy/paste content. 

 

My only question is would Sony have objective or subjective means to certify that there are enough differences to certify a new "crap" game on PSN.

 

 

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

25 minutes ago, Jelly Soup said:

But whatever damage this has done to the leaderboards is done and the fallout is going to stretch on for some years. There are already multi-system hunters in Discord who are excited for the change, since straight removing the source for piles of achievements means anyone who didn't get/do them is now permanently that much behind the people who did in the aforementioned numbers game.

 

This is why I reckon there is now a certain inevitability to the major trophy sites - including, of course, PSNP - having their hands forced, and needing to alter their LB formulas to reduce existing, previously earned shovel-ware games' points values.

 

If Sony takes the harsh option on any single Shovelware dev, that will be the first domino - since each one has so many asset-flip products out there. Such an action would basically hobble the Leaderboard permanently - it would be an "everyone freeze in place" situation, where those who already harvested the trophies from that crop of products cannot possibly be dethroned by any newcomer.

 

If Sony does take this action - actually remove a dev's existing products from sale -  (and that remains a big "if", of course,) then the genie will be thoroughly out of the bottle.

 

In that scenario, the first one of the established, functional sites to say "okay, now we just accept that our trophy level can no longer match PSN level," and removes all points for shovel ware games across all profiles (or reduces them to 1 point, or whatever the chosen solution is,) will see a stampede of trophy hunters to it...

...and the others will scramble to do the same, in order to remain relevant.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[ScintillaWolf]

Reading through various comments, I can't say I agree with deleting peoples trophies or these shovelware games off their lists as when they bought them (and as of this writing) they were perfectly allowed by Sony and they have technically done nothing wrong, however cheap or crappy the practice is.

 

At the end of the day however, if Sly turned around and decided to strip any game officially dubbed as shovelware by Sony of it's value, or of its points, or even removed them from the website entirely... well it belongs to him so there would be no argument really would there?

 

So Sly... FOR GOD SAKE DO IT ?

[serrated-banner9]

1 hour ago, Thrillhelm said:

Strawman's argument. A lot of people tend to speak on behalf of others to booster their argument. 

 

Sony did not say people wasted their money, you did. 

 

Enough of your hostility, "buddy".

well yeah but sony recognises the problem. you don't plus if they said that people who had brought it had wasted their money it would offend people

[PalaceOfLove706]

I see four shovelware games in the coming soon section of the psn store. Wonder if this will be the last wave of them. 

[Thrillhelm]

7 hours ago, serrated-banner9 said:

well yeah but sony recognises the problem. you don't plus if they said that people who had brought it had wasted their money it would offend people

I do recognize the problem but its not that big to me (considering the store situation). However no need to demand a retroactive punishment for people playing shovelware games.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Beyondthegrave07
Stop responding to trolls

[MAUSZX]

Finally, I don't think people understand how this games hurts the industry specially indie developers.

Edited November 22, 2022 by MAUSZX

[C-VarZz-13]

Im An old hunter and restarted buying a PS5 and if i look @ the leaderboard OMG how can you even be proud to be in top leaderboard with all those easy 30 sec or min... Games , WOW you are a very good gamer ..... NOT 

 

If you have a couple easy games ok , it could be so that you play it with your child or you like it so hard and maybe a remake of your own childhood.

 

I hope they delete it from store and also ban the trophies on profiles.

 

Kind Regards 

[z99f]

Seeing as I've never purchased any of these spam games nor have I ever cared about my position on the leaderboards, the outcome here won't make any difference to me (whether the news is true or not). 

 

But this isn't even about me. It's about the smaller Indie devs finally having the ability to have their actual games seen. This is a victory for them. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by z99f

[No longer here]

Gah damn this thread is long

[Sikutai]

1 hour ago, Tigerz_bone_21 said:

Wow....shit I never play games of shovelware.

 

Edit : damn shit I recently watched IBaddriver1's youtube about playstation bans easy platinum games and shovelware - no more easy platinum games.

 

 

IBaddriverI, who I've followed since the beginning, was also happier when he was still able to make real guides for easy but real games.

 

3 minutes ago, victorrfuego said:

Gah damn this thread is long

 

I've been told that length doesn't matter.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Sikutai

[Ashande]

3 minutes ago, C-VarZz-13 said:

Im An old hunter and restarted buying a PS5 and if i look @ the leaderboard OMG how can you even be proud to be in top leaderboard with all those easy 30 sec or min... Games , WOW you are a very good gamer ..... NOT 

 

If you have a couple easy games ok , it could be so that you play it with your child or you like it so hard and maybe a remake of your own childhood.

 

I hope they delete it from store and also ban the trophies on profiles.

 

Kind Regards 

 

Something that frequently seems to be lost in the shuffle (and almost inevitably leads to folks rocketing off the slippery slope) is that the vast majority - if not all - the top dogs on the leaderboards would still be head and shoulders above everyone else even if one nuked all the Jumping Tacos and Stroke the Dogs. While I agree that taking pride in holding X for 2 minutes hundreds - or thousands - of times is a bizarre concept and not necessarily an activity to be lauded, it essentially doesn’t matter. Strip what you like, it all comes off as data manipulation to get a desired result… and that result isn’t going to happen.

 

Just now, lostforever77 said:

Oh, so one can't defend others now, bully? Gotcha

 

For someone so fixated on “defending” others and crying foul if anyone says anything you consider even vaguely or potentially problematic, you certainly seem to have no issue with namecalling and targeting others. Of course, by saying such, I’m sure that marks me as a bully or some flavor of istaphobic as well, I’m sure.

[Diddi89]

Why are so many people so toxic?

live and let live.

it’s a hobby and there are more important things in life.

Of course it’s a huge part of my life and I speak about it very often in a normal discussion. No reason to judge others.

If they are happy it’s fine and if not, the only thing they are doing is lying to themselves 

[Colin_Raleigh]

This news should definitely please the Platinum Police. ?

[exit3_sk]

I really hope this doesn’t happen, there are actually quite a bit of fun lil game that are published by east Asia soft and ratalaika.  Now if this gets rid of the pig D, Iron Age, and those games where a it’s a single or 2 images that’s fine

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, exit3_sk said:

I really hope this doesn’t happen, there are actually quite a bit of fun lil game that are published by east Asia soft and ratalaika.  Now if this gets rid of the pig D, Iron Age, and those games where a it’s a single or 2 images that’s fine

 

That's all this is.

 

No danger to Ratalaika and EastAsiaSoft.

 

They don't publish asset-flips.

[Diddi89]

Just now, exit3_sk said:

I really hope this doesn’t happen, there are actually quite a bit of fun lil game that are published by east Asia soft and ratalaika.  Now if this gets rid of the pig D, Iron Age, and those games where a it’s a single or 2 images that’s fine

I didn’t think rata and easta will banned too.

in fact many are easy Platinums but still Games. And some are pretty good.

[Infected Elite]

3 hours ago, ChiefMichigan said:

Nintendo and Steam really need to do this as well. 

you would have to be dumb to buy shovelware on Nintendo. yes gaming > trophies, but easy trophies are why these get bought. On Nintendo, they have no achievement system so you look stupid af for buying garbage more on Switch than you would on PS.

[Thrillhelm]

Remove the shovelware games from the store and reward them 0 points here. One year at most and the top leaderboard will be made up from 90% of the same people again, no matter how many artificial handicaps are thrown in the way.

[DrBloodmoney]

Just now, Thrillhelm said:

Remove the shovelware games from the store and reward them 0 points here. One year at most and the top leaderboard will be made up from 90% of the same people again, no matter how many artificial handicaps are thrown in the way.

 

Exactly.

 

So what's the problem?

[AngelsOfDeth]

If true then y’all better “Stroke” like it’s the last god damn day on earth. Or at least till your hand breaks

[Thrillhelm]

The problem is to demand a punishment for something that hasn't been forbidden before, and having a leaderboard with restrictions. A vast punishment for a pointless change of the meta, and a situation where no one wins.

 

No more new shovelware (even for the IMHO wrong reason)? Fine, stops the arms race. Retroactive removal of points? No.

[Alos88]

1 minute ago, Thrillhelm said:

The problem is to demand a punishment for something that hasn't been forbidden before, and having a leaderboard with restrictions. A vast punishment for a pointless change of the meta, and a situation where no one wins.

 

No more new shovelware (even for the IMHO wrong reason)? Fine, stops the arms race. Retroactive removal of points? No.

I agree, nobody should be punished for playing these games. I'm happy enough seeing the devs supplying being forced either to make something better or to leave the service entirely, because frankly they've brought nothing of value to the table. I do hope stuff like Ratalaika stays though, their games aren't all that consistent but even at their worst they can still be called actual games.