Sony has removed more than 900 titles published by Afil Games from the PlayStation Store. Afil publicly confirmed the removal via X and said PlayStation’s stricter publishing guidelines did not align with its business model, according to Allkeyshop, which reported the news on June 25, 2026.
The removals are part of a broader moderation effort focused on low-effort releases made primarily to offer easy Platinum trophies. Reporting describes the policy shift as an attempt to improve storefront discoverability by limiting mass-produced, near-identical games and other low-quality releases.
Afil said it would continue releasing games on Xbox, the Microsoft Store, and Nintendo Switch. The report also describes displaced publishers moving toward competing platforms with more lenient publishing standards.
Acyntha joins the removals
That same month, Push Square reported that micro-indie publisher Acyntha said its relationship with PlayStation had been terminated and that its products would be removed from Sony’s storefront at the end of the month. Its titles include Pizza No Pizza and New Supper Banana.
Push Square said Acyntha’s games did not appear as egregious as some of the shovelware it had previously covered, while also describing their Platinum trophy requirements as extraordinarily easy. The outlet questioned why games of this type could not be blocked before reaching the PlayStation Store.
Earlier delistings raise questions
There is also a recent example of games being removed from the store without a publicly stated explanation. In September and October 2025, PlayStation LifeStyle reported that at least 20 games published by Red Deer Games under the Progressive Live Studio label were quietly delisted from the PS Store.
The outlet said none of those games were shovelware. It found that the PS Store was the only affected storefront among several titles it checked. Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia, for example, remained available on other platforms while its PlayStation Store page had been removed.
The Afil removal fits the stated effort to limit trophy-focused shovelware, but the Acyntha and Red Deer cases illustrate why the details of PlayStation’s review process matter to smaller publishers. The available reporting does not explain why the Red Deer titles were delisted, and Push Square has called for more information about how Sony handles these releases.
- Afil Games: More than 900 titles were removed from the PlayStation Store after the publisher said stricter guidelines did not fit its business model.
- Acyntha: The publisher said its relationship with PlayStation had been terminated, with titles including Pizza No Pizza and New Supper Banana due to be removed at the end of June 2026.
- Red Deer Games: At least 20 games released under the Progressive Live Studio label were delisted from the PS Store in September and October 2025, despite PlayStation LifeStyle saying they were not shovelware.
Sony’s effort to reduce low-effort, trophy-driven releases may improve visibility for other games, but the earlier Red Deer delistings show that removals can be difficult to interpret when no explanation is publicly available. Clearer information about how titles are reviewed would help distinguish a broad cleanup from decisions affecting smaller legitimate releases.
