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Platinum trophies used to mean something

The PlayStation Store has been full of extremely bizarre and lackluster games for a while now. But what was bad only seems to get worse. A handful of indie developers play the system by releasing essentially the same game over and over – offering a new platinum trophy with each “game”. These titles offer nothing of value and just seem to mute everything around them.

Games like The jumping fries, The Jumping Fries Turbo, and dozens of other similar products are crowding PSN storefronts, making it harder for customers to find what they’re looking for. Not only that, but factual hard-working indie developers are getting lost in the shuffle of these crappy titles, which have been forcefully pushed down the new release list, PSN’s only real visibility tool for smaller games.

If you think these repeatedly published indies are somehow real, check out this video from Kyle Bosman. He shows you how to earn a platinum trophy for all of these games in just a few minutes or less. These companies know exactly what they’re doing, and it affects more than just the storefront and other indie developers. It ruined an excellent metagame for many PlayStation fans.

The hunt is over

Platinum trophies used to feel special. When a licensed game like Cloudy with a chance of meatballs or Mega Mind was released, trophy hunters would sprint to play them for a nice and easy platinum. However, what was then considered an “easy platinum” is very different. Disney and Dreamworks games weren’t exceptional, but at least they resembled a factual game. You had to work. They usually ranged from 4-10 hours to fully completed – far from The Jumping Pasta which takes about two minutes and no effort for Platinum. Literally, all you have to do is push the joystick up and you’ll earn a platinum trophy in Heavy traffic.

Easy Platinum trophies used to be like a needle in a haystack. Now you can’t go on PSN without seeing at least five at the top of the new releases. The value of the Platinum trophy has fallen exponentially. It used to make seven hours of trudging through average games worth that sweet platinum trophy. There was a sense of accomplishment. But now dozens of platinum trophies can be obtained in 20 minutes. Where’s the fun in that? At this point, I’ve almost completely given up on the hunt.

If you’re curious about the developers behind these platinum trophy schemes, the most notable are Ratalaika Games, ThiGames, and Random Spin Games. However, Smobile is by far the most blatant. The company has published 75+ games on PS4 and PS5 with a total of at least 250 trophies lists (using region-specific trophies).

For some more insightful information on the subject, I highly recommend checking out some recent podcast discussions on LSM. Ty Richardson (WatchMojo, LongplayArchive) gathered a ton of research and shares how badly these developers are taking advantage of PSN. Then an interview with Atari’s production director discusses how these games hurt their visibility on PSN. Finally, here’s a video from Motson showing off some criminally simple platinum trophies.

Fortunately, Nintendo and Microsoft don’t allow as many of these shovelware titles on their digital storefronts (but they still need work). Sadly, all signs point to things getting worse on PlayStation, with Sony planning to lower the barrier to entry even more for developers to publish games on PSN. Yaks.

I hope Sony understands how this affects PSN, other indie developers and players who collect trophies as a hobby. to publish Jumping Burger, Taco jumpingand hot dog jumping on PSN is of no value to anyone other than a small group of weak-willed trophy hunters.

Brett Medlock

Head of video at Destructoid