The PlayStation Network is a great place for smaller digital games, giving up-and-coming indies a gateway to console players that wasn’t there a decade ago.
In recent months Sony’s certification process has become noticeably less stringent. Sure, PSN is no stranger to bad or broken games but titles such as the dismal Life of Black Tiger and SKYLIGHT FREERANGE 2 highlight a worrying trend.
This week Sony’s laughably lax certification came under fire again, and rightly so. A game titled “★★★★★ 1000 Top Rated” quickly caught the attention of PSN users, highlighting just how easy it is to abuse PS4 storefront.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSkGPTHydxE
In a nutshell, it’s a collection of 4K wallpapers turned into an interactive tile puzzler. We’d hesitate to even call it a game, but that’s not the worst part. For the tiny sum of $0.98, it promises the world’s fastest (and possibly the easiest) platinum trophy.
It’s ridiculously shady, Top Rated using the “game” as a thinly-veiled promotion of its Facebook page (which we’re not even going to bother linking).
Sony has since responded however, removing the “game” from PSN. According to its developer, they’ve been asked to change the name and remove any mention of easy trophies in its store description.
Hopefully, if Top Rated ever resurfaces, let’s hope Sony only allows a paltry spread of trophies.
TrumpyMx
You should block and unfriend anyone that has a trophy from this crap. They are subhuman scum
double-o-dave
Maybe a tad harsh lol
dave87fez
Yeah. Forget the terrorists and the murderers, people with trophies from a cheap game are the real enemies here
TSBonyman
Hanging’s too good for them – nail ’em up i say!
JR.
Don’t see what the problem is tbh. Cash4Plats isn’t new. People spend money on shit games for easy platinum trophies all the time (Hannah Montana anyone…). At least these guys are being honest about it.
I’d rather Sony focus their attention on the ridiculous prices of new avatars and dynamic themes, pay to win or banning microtranasctions from AAA games.
Youles
I kind of agree. I think it’s worse when Dev’s use trophies to “make” (I realise you don’t have to) you keep playing. Battlefield Hardline’s DLC trophies – 40,000 multiplayer kills for 4 bronze trophies. The very thought almost makes me cry.
If someone is desperate enough to pay $0.98 for an easy platinum then surely that’s up to them. Sony can’t really accuse them of undermining trophies when there are inconsistencies already – Hitman is a physical release, is easily a 40+ hour game and has no platinum – yet there are PSN games like My Name Is Mayo.
I think the worse part is the games’ name. Terrible.
MrYd
The worst thing about those Hardline trophies is they’re 10,000 kills with each class with the DLC installed. Any kills in the however long it was before that first DLC don’t count.
A surprising number of people have them though, given how ridiculous they are and they’re DLC trophies.
Hitman not having a platinum isn’t that surprising though. They did it in that stupid episodic way, so the game only has 17 trophies and then 52 trophies for the DLC. Although other episodic games have platinums I guess. All those Telltale games, except for the 2nd season of The Walking Dead.
Yeah, it’s a bit inconsistent, isn’t it?
Youles
Indeed – they do need to be a bit more consistent I think. Be interesting to know exactly how they determine what gets a platinum and what doesn’t.
JR.
It seems the only mistake they made was advertising it as ‘the World’s fastest platinum’ when they should have kept quiet and allowed others to do the job for them… http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2016/05/03/we-found-it-the-playstation-4s-easiest-platinum-trophy/ ;)
double-o-dave
I guess I could have more if I wanted, but I’ve only got 2 Platinum trophies – Driveclub & Horizon. They weren’t particularly hard to get, but still quite satisfying.
I only need 2 easy bronzes to get the Infamous Platinum, but I just can’t be bothered so I guess trophies don’t really mean too much to me anymore. So yeah, getting these games is pretty dam sad.
But… On my old PSN account I had 4 – I must admit to renting the Terminator game from BlockBuster on PS3 for an easy platinum :/
Apart from that the others were Uncharted 2, Resident Evil 5 (which took days of golden egg collecting) & Dirt. The first 2 being pretty dam difficult to get – for me that is.
Pitcher-T
I guess the point is more to weed out the shovelware, rather than stopping people from paying for a platinum trophy.
I know there are always good games and bad games, but quality should always be above a certain level. That black tiger game is an embarrassment frankly.
Bring back the Nintendo seal of quality
Jim Hargreaves
I think that’s the point really.
Sony needs to crack down on some of the crap getting through certification.
This one is particularly shady due to the store description and marketing targeting people who just want the trophies and nothing else.
TSBonyman
I got a platinum for watching Tales from the Borderlands and occasionally interacting with it.
badger
I bought this and got the platinum in 8 minutes.
I have no Shame!!
The Lone Steven
Ah, the putrid sleazy games have came to PSN after the fall of Steam Greenlight. Or Sony is going to follow the “Feck it. We do it live!” approach. Where they just don’t care about anything and allow any crap on the system. *sighs*
At least they took this down but probably because of the title and not because it’s utter garabage that is barely a game and when BIIIIIGGGGG RIIIIIGGGSS is more of a game then your game. You fail at developing!
badger
You ok hun?
The Lone Steven
I am. Why do you ask?