There's been a suggestion from some parts of the media that Sony should curate the PlayStation Store more heavily. It's a topic that's likely risen to prominence as we're in a quiet period right now, but everyone's having a say about it, from high-profile YouTubers all the way through to big-name publications. But is it really something that the platform holder should do?
A spate of shoddy digital downloads are almost certainly the cause for the conversation. Life of Black Tiger – a bafflingly bad looking animal simulation – deployed in North America last week, raising eyebrows around the world. And it's not the only awful looking title to see release on the PlayStation 4: the likes of Skylight Freerange 2: Gachduine have also prompted questions.
But is it time Sony started to pick and choose which titles it allows on the PlayStation Store? There are some people who believe it is, but we reckon that it's a dangerous path. As it stands, all three major platform holders run quality assurance checks on software submitted to their systems; this is a mandatory process designed to ensure that the titles don't brick any machines.
The red-tape is not in place to determine the quality of the content, but there are some pundits who believe that it should. Some have suggested the idea of a 'PlayStation Store Panel'; a team of industry experts recruited to determine whether the quality of a game is high enough to be sold on the storefront. If it falls short, then it's resigned to the trash can.
But this sounds like a terrible idea to us. Firstly, it would result in fewer releases on the format, and the idea that anyone would campaign for less choice is asinine as far as we're concerned. But seeing as entertainment is entirely subjective, how could there ever be consistency between what's considered 'good' and 'bad'?
More to the point, how would a screening process even function? Would a developer have to complete development on the game before being told it's not "good enough" to be sold? And if the proposed panel were working with pitches, who's to say that they wouldn't deem something like "soccer with cars" a bad idea; it sounds pretty terrible on paper, but Rocket League disagrees.
Curation would also go against everything that the PS4 stands for. Sony marketed the machine as a haven for developers at launch – it even walked around wearing 'PlayStation Loves Indies' shirts. Now it's suddenly going to tell developers that the content of their games isn't good enough? That simply doesn't sound fair.
Nobody wants the PlayStation Store to be overrun with garbage, but the moment that Sony starts picking and choosing, it's going to find itself in a sticky spot. It's down to the media to spotlight the best content, and similarly the storefront itself needs to be designed in a way that ensures the best stuff gets pushed to the top. But the idea that someone else should decide what we get play? No thanks.
Do you think that there should be more curation on the PlayStation Store? Should Sony block games from being released if they don't meet a certain quality criteria, and how could that possibly be measured? Be sure to post a good comment below, or we may just do some curation of our own and delete the bad ones.
Should Sony start to curate the PlayStation Store? (113 votes)
- Yes, there’s too much garbage coming out these days
- I don’t really know
- No, release the games and let me decide what to buy
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Comments 63
Big companies produce awful games too, it's up to gamers to decide what they like or not. Filtering PS Store would only harm creative indies.
@RenanKJ
wow. exactly. best comment to start the article.
I don't know how bad "Life of Black Tiger" is, but it seems to be the exception and not the rule. And if Black Tiger is curated, then that begs the question, what is the metric by which games will be judged? I'm sure there are many gamers out there who would have loved to see "No Man's Sky" taken out of the store.
@RenanKJ has the right idea.
@RenanKJ Absolutely. Customers can vote with their wallets on what's good or not.
I certainly hope not. If people are buying games that they haven't researched enough or isn't up to their par, they should take responsibility for it. I am not saying everything on the store is to my liking or is even quality, but please leave that for us to decide.
I have played plenty of disappointing AAA games and I was out much more $$ than taking a small chance on an indie. Judging by what we get with PS+ every month, in the 3 years since I've been downloading these games, I have only played a couple of them past the first couple levels. Most of the indie games aren't for me, but I don't want to ruin it for the people who do enjoy them.
Also, something that has contributed to this mentallity is how hyped games are these days. It seems with every new experience becomes a new expectation. I don't know about you guys, but I don't expect every game I play to be the very best game I've ever played.
Just make the store easier to search. Steam needs to do this too. But my goodness there is so much shovelware being produced for all systems right now. It's all about quantity over quality these days.
I love the anything goes policy. Reminds me of some of the rubbish I used to get on demo tapes for my C64.
If we look back at consoles that were successful in the past, everyone had shovelware on them. Just on PlayStation alone there was Irritating Stick on PS1, Snow White and the 7 clever boys on PS2, Ride to hell on PS3 and finally Yasari Ninja for PS4.
It comes down to the argument that "are their too many games"? On Steam, probably due to the recent news of 40% it's entire library were games released last year. A lot of that is down to just allowing early access games on the store with them been nowhere near finished (see Day Z, remember when that was announced for PS4)?
Thankfully Sony hasn't really allowed such things to happen yet.
@kyleforrester87 Ah those were the days, I remember playing strange little games like Dizzy's Treasure Island, Pyjamarama and Huxley Pig
Something weird is going on, and I don't know if it's the progeny of sarcasm. Metacritic scores for the Black Tiger average on 8/10 and the reviewers call it a masterpiece. Either it's a fine trolling attempt, or there's more to this game than meets the eye.
Yup, it's sarcasm.
That said, I'm getting it.
@Nickolaidas
you might like it. lol.
Deadly Premonition received terrible reviews when it came out, and tons of people hated it, but it got a cult following. Personally, I love Deadly Premonition and one of my favorite games, but I will admit it's pretty rough.
@Utena-mobile That's a really good shout. Would Deadly Premonition have failed some kind of curation process? Probably, right?
How about adopting a better refund policy instead? Follow the guidelines from Valve, maybe cut the demo time down to 1 week/ 1 hour, one time no questions asked refunds? There are very few, if any games that can be beaten in an hour, seems like a win-win to me.
I agree this is a dangerous game to get into. What does it matter if crap games are on there. It is easy to find what you're looking for and skip the rest. More choices even if some of them are crap to most gamers is still better then Sony picking and choosing what they think we may want from all the available games. It would just make fewer smaller developers even try to release their games on Sony's platforms.
When I see games on there I have never heard of, I look them up to see if I might be interested.
I thought the store was curated in some way already (not in terms of what releases), yeah, maybe not every game that releases is an instant must buy, but it all depends on individual taste and budget. Big Indies and AAA titles always get the spotlight on the front page of the store and are easily distinguishable from the other 'average'/'not so known' titles. Even during sales and such.
To be honest, I'm not sure. The situation is nowhere near as dire as on Steam fortunately, but that's a good example of the other end of the stick that you don't want either. There's a difference between a game and something that a 12-year old put together in an afternoon with pre-made assets. The PS store isn't flooded with garbage, so it's currently not really an issue.
We dont want Sony to become Nintendo of the 90's.
There is too much garbage but black tiger is too hilarious to deny though. The store needs two sections, a store front and a shovelware bazaar. In the bazaar Life of Black Tiger would be a 9.5 but on the PlayStation store main, it wouldn't see the light of day or just be a 3. The problem I have is that all games should have in depth descriptions and genre allocations, they should all also have gameplay videos. Currently this is not always the case and so sometimes without checking YouTube you really wouldn't have a clue what you were buying.
@Jake3103 @Utena-mobile @RenanKJ Nope, nope and nope. 'Big companies' put in effort and millions, they have many employees who have families to feed. Plenty of the shovelware its trash hacked up by a couple of d bags in spare time. I would prefer stricter rules but I wouldn't ask for it, I do believe if there are serious problems with a game then cross the board refunds and just pull it from the store, doesn't really ever happen though. Basement Crawl is only one example I can think of in a similar situation.
@3Above isn't Nintendo of the 90s today's Nintendo?
Having a top grossing section and a curated section would be good...Top games in each genre. The good stuff would percolate to the top and save searching through the cross that pops up each week.
Black Tiger is a blessing and you should treat it as such, it's not flawed, it's just too ahead of its time!
I think the public and the media should spotlight the quality titles more, filter out the crud, but sometimes a line should be drawn. It's true that there has always been shovelware, and I for one would like less of it. That said, maybe a judge of sorts would be too harsh. If there is a standard, I don't think it should be super strict, but enough to ward off obvious shovelware. Otherwise, the public should probably be smart enough to avoid it.
I absolutely detest Apple itunes store and android play store. It feels like it's run by politicians all using bribes and top dollar to push games to the front page. Many excellent games are not promoted on their stores. If Sony store gets curated then the same political cash grab motivation will spoil the gaming community. If casuals get bored of gaming on mobiles.. and I so can see that coming... who'll create and support the gaming industry as a whole.
But if they start curating and cutting bad games, what's then gonna be put on the instant game collection?
Hahaha I had an opinion and voted before watching the two trailers mentioned. I still don't think games should be curated...but hahahahahaha 😂
I guess the real question here - does Black Tiger have a platinum? 😉
The curation is there in a way via the ability to stream.
Lets players get an idea from their peers (usually), so leave it as it is, nine times outta ten, most savvy gamers will have researched enough beforehand, plus sales and major discounts let those undecides wait a bit longer with less pain to their wallets anyway..
I believe the middle point solution would be better costumer reviews on PS store. Right now it is impossible to search by costumer ratings for example, where NMS would be a very fair 3/5, but U4 is (I seem to recall) 5/5. Another thing would be the ability to write extended costumer reviews from your telephone playstation app, akin to amazon's.
What do you think?
@RedMageLanakyn
I totally agree with your suggestion. Please, Sony THIS so much.
What they should be doing is ensuring that information on games is present and correct on the storefront. I find it particularly frustrating on Vita, where even screenshots are often absent.
I also find it weird that they prioritise what is effective the small print info over game descriptions, eg game requires a memory card.
If developers want to shell out for a dev kit, that's their prerogative.
If consumers want to take a chance on the game, that's also their prerogative.
Either way it's none of my business.
There is a place for any old trash game under the sun, it's called Steam
A popular and easy-to-develop-for platform faces everyone and their dog making games for it regardless of experience in the trade? Totally hasn't happened since Atari 2600. Of course, the aforementioned case led to unfortunate consequences, but back then the industry was younger, games all physical, pricing less diverse and YouTube gameplay samples nonexistent. Nowadays so-called "shovelware" - an inevitably subjective term in and of itself once people start trying to apply it - doesn't live up to the definition of a problem - games vary in price, previews abound and most customers old enough to authorise and make purchases in PS Store are [hopefully] old enough to use content filters, vote with wallets instead of potty mouths and avoid making "blanket judgements".
If Sony themselves wanted to "protect their image" (even though in such cases it only needs protection among those it may not be really worth the protecting effort with), it could be debatable but would be within their right since PS Store is their gig, bread and wine. But "Sony Seal of Quality" demands coming from the side supposedly capable enough to apply their own seals of quality before they confirm a transaction... is not exactly a cause to support. And before you ask, personal aesthetical displeasure and ruined days through merely coming across and browser-window shopping through whatever black tigers in the catalogue... is our problem, not the catalogue's.
@RedMageLanakyn If you buy a game that's not very good, that's your responsibility. Refunds should be for faults, not poor decisions.
Literally just watched Kinda Funny's "Colin Was Right" video on this topic before seeing this. Was that your inspiration for this article? haha
Steam and PC had a bad problem with this so many crap games on the store you had a hard time finding the good titles. They had to do a lot of work to push the good games to the front of the store. It's much better now but I do not want to see the PS store flooded with that amount of junk. I always thought they did curate the games in the PS store to a small point. Was Black tiger just something that slipped through? Is it really that bad? Could it be a Eastern game the West just cant connect with? I don't know but 1 bad game is not enough to make such a fuss about.
@Nickolaidas It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger
No - no curation. Part of the fun of searching is the store is doing a little research on games before you buy. Besides, I don't know of which metric you would use other than a bug check.
Rather than have a review board for titles Sony should allow refunds for shoddy games purchased on the store.
Some games on the PS store are absolute garbage and are not of the quality you would expect. Taste is subjective however some games really dont deserve to see the light of day.
This method would be the happy medium.
Yes, I think they should curate it more.
Some level of curation should be used to ensure that PSN doesn't degenerate into what Steam has become, or even worse, the iPhone store.
If you follow the work of Jim Sterling you'll see that the guy has hundreds of videos on YouTube dedicated to pulling apart completely terrible games available on Steam. Many are games that re-use assets from other games, some are legitimately, objectively broken, and a few even outright lie to consumers in their Steam ads. It's a wasteland, and it undermines the stellar work that Valve has done in creating Steam in the first place.
PSN is nowhere near as bad as Steam, and certainly not close to the App Store, but there are signs that it could eventually turn that way, and I do believe that Sony could - and should - do something to stop that. I understand that some people say things like "But it's up to consumers!" and I get that. I also get the concern that any level of curation could be abused, or stifle indies.
But in my hypothetical future neither of those things happen, and indie games are actually promoted by Sony, allowing games that do something special to potentially make more of a splash. Sure, it'll always be contentious as to which games are "special" but someone in the know pointing people in the right direction has to be better than just a free for all, right?
We review games. That's what we do. And I've reviewed some games that I genuinely don't believe should be on the store at all. I've reviewed games that are borderline broken, or that don't work as advertised, and all selling those games on the store does is potentially take attention away from another game that deserves it. I've literally been sat playing games I've reviewed before and thought to myself, "I can't recommend this to anybody. At all. Who is it even for?"
Look at the coverage of Life of Black Tiger. On this very site there was coverage for it, and on many others around the net. The aforementioned Jim Sterling did a video on it. This is a game that is getting unwarranted attention by virtue of it being terrible. And the tragedy is that people might even throw a few pound at it if it's cheap just to see how bad it is. No such thing as bad publicity. Look at how many people are talking about the game now, even if it's only to mock.
What worries me is that genuinely impressive indie games are going to get buried in a sea of dreadful cash-ins like that Mayo game because Sony has next to no quality control on their store. That basically broken games like that Afro thing that got pulled made it past cert and nobody thought to say, "Hey, wait a minute... this doesn't actually work properly."
I say yes to curation. I'm not talking about a dictatorship. I just don't want it to be the wild west either. I want Sony to take some responsibility, and help to push consumers toward games that warrant attention. Whether that's a better returns policy so consumers aren't stung, or a board to judge how objectively well made a game is before allowing it on the store, I would like to see them do something.
Nope. Even that Black Tiger game will be fun to somebody somewhere. And if you buy a game without doing the research and knowing exactly what you're getting then that's your own fault. More options is ALWAYS good even if some options suck
I'm a bit mixed on this but I'd lean more towards higher quality control. It would be an incentive for devs to actually make decent games, and it means they can't rush out garbage. Furthermore it would mean the store isn't over saturated, the average quality of indie games would increase which would help developers who actually out effort into their games get noticed. Not to mention indie games generally don't have a great reputation at the moment. I'd say the standards should be set low so bad games could be let onto the store and people should have the freedom to try bad games if they wish, but it should only be games that absolutely broken that aren't let on. So in this case the only people who lose out are the people who put out broken unfinished games, everyone else wins.
"Curation would also go against everything that the PS4 stands for. " I disagree with this. If you mean PS4 stands for innovative/smaller experiences, simply putting in quality control doesn't go against these. It just means developer's have to actually try. Again if anything it goes for these things, as curation means good games are more likely to be noticed.
My feelings are basically summed up in the last paragraph.
Even bad games can be fun for somebody. It's also funny that with all the coverage Life of Black Tiger has received its probably going to sell really well.
@johncalmc I agree, Jim Sterling makes some great points about why any old rubbish shouldn't be let in. The main reason, for me at least, is what you said in your second to last paragraph, genuinely good games can be easily missed if you allow a sea of dross on your store.
I've used Steam since Half-life 2 forced you to and, for most of that time, when you saw a game pop up you thought you might like the chances were it would at least have a lot of care and attention put into it even if it turned out to be not that good. Now you have literally 100s of games that have been coded (and I use that in the loosest sense of the word) in a weekend and slapped on the store in hopes of making a bit of money before every realises what rubbish it is. Finding the good stuff is a nightmare under this system and genuinely hurts otherwise decent developers.
@Dichotomy Yeah, defo. I think some people hear "curation" and wrongly assume that we're talking about axing everything on the store that doesn't hit an 8.0 on Metacritic.
The problem with Steam and the App Store is that there's no quality control at all and they've become a cess-pit full of unscrupulous sellers looking to make as much money as they can from naive customers before they're found out. It's great to have choice, but I think at some point somebody needs to step in and say, "This is unacceptable."
PSN is nowhere near that bad yet, but when I'm watching like fifteen new games hit the store every week, it gives me concerns. Every news article over the last week or two dedicated to Life of Black Tiger could have been given to a game that deserves it. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.
In physical stores the owners of the establishment have to decide what they're going to put on their shelves because they have a limited amount of real estate to work with. Yes, of course, that means they have a natural tendency to fill their shelves with items that will make money first, rather than ones that are of better quality. But they still have decisions to make and they still have to employ some level of curation based on some level of objectivity.
Online stores are a free for all, and unless someone steps in and draws a line, it's easy to see how on PSN we might end up with early access debacles, rip off games, more of that Mayo stuff, and full on broken or misleading products. It's in the consumers best interests not to be told what to do, but to make sure that there's not an option to be hoodwinked on the table at all.
I don't think curating is a good idea at all. Sometimes I'm bored and just buy some cheap indie for something to do. I buy almost all my games digitally and if I'm looking to spend over $20 then I research the heck outta the games. The only thing I hate is that it seema like almost every game get a 4+ star review. Do the reviews come from the consumer or someone else?
@johncalmc I do think that is the main problem here, perception of what curation means in this instance. People see it as an attack on their right to choose rather than the equivalent of a TV store refusing to stock some cheap imported brand of television because the picture quality is terrible and they are prone to break due to poor workmanship and quick build times. Filling the store with rubbish just makes it harder to find the good stuff.
A relatively small team could examine new games and quickly decide whether it is something that has been worked on or just another game that has been made in a day using base assets from a game engine. There would still be a good mix of games on the store, as well as those that aren't classed as stellar, but might get a niche audience. The only difference would be the lack of need to wade through games like Galactic Hitman. Seriously, if anyone needs a reason why curation is good, look that game up on Youtube and after you have a laugh, have a think about having 2 of those pop up every day due to no quality control.
Sorry to say, that I've picked up games that were counted as bad from others, with bad graphics, but I or my family have enjoyed...one being the new Ghostbusters game that came out on PS4...rated horribly, but I have enjoyed it and so have my kids. I think Sony can put whatever they want on the store...let people decide on what they want to play. I'm 37, but there are kids that play the system and more...we don't just need M-rated titles and FPS's, it's good to have a variety, even if some aren't that great. The Tiger game does look pathetic...it looks like something that would have been known as shovel ware on the Wii, but is it something that still was not bought...nope, some people still bought it, and there are probably some people that actually enjoyed it (no, I did not buy it and I think it looks horrible, but if I saw it in a flash sale for a $1 or less, I'd pick it up). Let people decide...it's something that has hurt other companies when they knit pick like that.
I agree, filtering PS Store would only harm creative indies and we.
@XCWarrior
Yes the psn store is slow and sluggish and a pain to navigate, on both the ps3 and the ps4.
I usually just buy my PlayStation games on the PC version of the store.
And I very much doubt that's what Sony had in mind .
I'll decide what I want to buy, Sony should concentrate on lowering prices and the overall store interface.
@stevejcrow So you've never bought a game that reviewed well, but didn't click with you? I've done that a few times. That's why I buy most of my games on Steam when possible. I'd rather have a one time refund on a "good decision" that didn't click with me than a $60 regret.
Too bad they didn't have a filter like this to save us from Journey…
I honestly don't see the point of curation. Let people buy what they want - reviews and online discussion will seperate the wheat from the chaff.
I agree profusely with @RedMageLanakyn since Sony's refund policy is abhorrent and should be changed to something akin to the refund policy on Steam. In fact, I wrote an article about it last year (shameless plug I know)
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2016/08/soapbox_why_sony_needs_to_change_its_refund_policy
@RedMageLanakyn I've had several. Trade them in though. There was no fault with the product, why should I expect a refund?
@stevejcrow Well considering we're talking digital and not physical, that's not really comparable. Most retailers won't accept opened games back for a refund, that is true. There are at least 4 digital stores on PC that allow refunds, and game developers have stated that it has not in any way hurt their bottom line in terms of sales. There's no reason Sony cannot implement a similar program. Even just giving someone the option for a refund is peace of mind.
You're putting money down, and if you're not happy after say, an hour of game time, one time return and your money becomes PSN credit. I really am failing to see a down side to it, and it's really no different from many online stores that have adopted this practice.
Curation? While there are what seems to be obvious stinkers there is also the one man's junk may be another man's treasure.
Content and graphic style opinions however are seperate from technical quality opinions because technical quality is more objective. Laggy frame rates and crashing is not an opinion.
The technical is where i need the most help from Sony. There is more concern this gen than frame rates and glitches. With the PS4 there is the added and often unwanted graphic effects that usually can not be disabled.
What are the effects? Dynamic dof, blurring when just looking around, haze, heavy blurry god rays, grain, desaturated colors, and lack of complete custom controller mapping. No black bars cropped fake wide angle please, and a choice of just a 10° wider fov would be nice.
Sony needs to pressue game makers to include on and off options for all those effects they like but i don't. Playing RE Revelations 2 on my PS4 with dynamic dof had me thinking i was having a stroke.
It's not my tv. Example: same tv and the game Goat Sim PS3 vs PS4 versions. PS4- more people, more stuff, and better textures close or in interiors, more pop in, heavy motion blur, and shallow dof where distance is blurry. 120GB slim PS3- less people and stuff, lower 720p close textures, less pop in, no distant blur with the small world clear and in focus and no blurring in slow mo or when i rotate the camera. GTA 5 also has less unwanted graphic effects on PS3 than PS4 which makes the PS3 version better for me.
MGS Phantom Pain has such heavy motion blur i can not play it. $40 down the drain. Sony needs to pressure developers to include a disable options for unwanted effects like motion blur and dynamic out of focusness.
We can beat around the bush but it is playable demos that is needed.
What was it Belathor says continuously in Skyrim...
"some may call this junk. Me, i call them treasures"
@RedMageLanakyn Yeah, sorry you're right. Can't compare physical & digital that way.
Any digital purchases I've not enjoyed get deleted and become another entry in my already unmanageable library, would love the option to delete betas, demos etc.
I guess I just wouldn't expect a refund because I didn't enjoy something, wouldn't do it with other forms of entertainment so why games?
@themcnoisy That is bull there are a lot of great games on PS plus. Even a lot of nice indies.
@Flaming_Kaiser surely you see that I'm being fastidious.
https://www.pushsquare.com/forums/ps4/i_psplus_and_the_igc
That's my thread bro. I love the IGC.
@stevejcrow For me, games are more of an investment than say, buying a blu ray and popping it in. You fully interact with (most) games, so it has a bigger role than just entertainment.
There is already a middle ground, much like there is for movies, which can be rented, but not everyone uses Gamefly. If there are two or three games I'm interested in, only available on console, i'll renew my Gamefly for a month and rent them. It's a lot cheaper and obviously not as much of a gamble.
I'm surprised this is even a topic for discussion. To me it's the same thing as EA Access. Make it available, let the consumers decide if it's worth it or not. Let these games, good or bad, release on the PS Store and then let the consumer decide how things play out.
To further the current discussion I see that Jim Sterling has posted another video on a new game on the PS Store, SKYLIGHT FREERANGE 2: GACHDUINE, a game so bad it didn't even get through Steam Greenlight. I fear the floodgates are going to open on these titles soon thanks to general indifference about them and then we will see how many people are still happy to wade through all this rubbish to find anything good.
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