Summary
- PlayStation fans outraged by Sony’s promotion of low-effort AI-generated game Supermarket Shopping Simulator.
- The game features laughable ratings but high purchases due to easy Platinum trophy earnings.
- Fans criticize Sony for poor curation and fear store overrun by low-effort AI-gen games.
PlayStation fans are not happy about Sony’s promotion of a low-effort, AI-generated shovelware on its official social media. The controversy was triggered by a recent post on PlayStation Italy’s official Instagram account promoting a barely known title, “Supermarket Shopping Simulator.”
From the look of it, this indie is something you’d expect to find buried in the worst-reviewed section. To make things worse, it’s a promotion that’s blatantly the work of AI. Some of the quick tell-tale signs include the character sprinting inside the shopping cart and the warped human proportions.
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The Supermarket Shopping Simulator game is exactly that: a grocery run simulator timing your shopping pace amid dynamic obstacles like out-of-stock products and crowded aisles. You read that right; this is a real game that PlayStation actively promoted.
And despite its laughable 1.53-star rating, it has recorded over 600 purchases, perhaps due to its easy Platinum trophy. Such games are the go-to types when you want to milk the PlayStation’s trophy system, allowing easy padding of your completion stats.
So, shovelware isn’t a new thing, but what’s alarming is that Sony is pushing it despite ongoing calls for stricter curation. Fans didn’t waste any time in calling out the publisher for poor store moderation, worrying that the boost of games riddled with AI slop undermines confidence in the PlayStation store’s future.
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Fans Roast PlayStation Store AI’s Handiwork
Social media mockery is piling up with salvos targeted at the title and the weird AI-generated image. One of the most intriguing conversations among the fan base was the character in the image seemingly running from inside the shopping cart as if the AI was confused about where their legs should be. Some comments from social media read:
“I remember seeing this at the start of the AI flooding, and I ripped it to shreds. Like… why is she in the shopping cart?”
“Who the hell plays this crap? What have we become?”
“This is just sad. Sony doesn’t care what’s in their store anymore.”
How Did This Happen?
Low-quality indie games are common on Sony’s PlayStation Store, but AI-assisted development has exacerbated the situation. AI assets are helping quickly churn out games that would otherwise take longer. The result? An overwhelming roster of low-effort releases.
When you add the trophy hunters to the mix, you get a perfect recipe for a compromised store ecosystem.
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The latest promotion proves that the rumored removal of AI-generated games from the PlayStation store was a hoax. Players can only watch as the curation gets lazier and AI-generated assets slip through easily.
This promotion also inicates that Sony could be making profits from these games.
This time, only one game provoked reactions, but the controversy highlights a bigger problem with Sony’s lack of quality control in its storefront. Fans have long tolerated the low-effort cash grabs, but now an official promotion proves impossible to ignore.
What will stop even more shovelware from flooding the store if PlayStation is comfortable with AI-generated promo images? Players aren’t taking this lightly and are making sure PlayStation knows it.
Sony has yet to comment on the situation.
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