I was recently digging through the PlayStation Store’s upcoming games section when I spotted a clearly AI-generated image of a shark in shoes. “Strange,” I thought to myself. And then I saw another. And then three more. And then even more. That’s when I realized AI slop has fully infested the PSN Store.
For years now, many people (myself included) have criticized Nintendo over how crappy its digital storefront is on Switch. It ran poorly, lacked key features, and worst of all, was filled with AI garbage, asset flips, and low-effort spam games that were often poorly made rip-offs of bigger titles. These days, on Switch 2, the eShop runs better, and Nintendo does seem to be trying to push back on all the slop in the store. That’s nice. But Nintendo isn’t the only storefront drowning in crap. For example, have you looked around the PlayStation Store lately? If not, you might be shocked by how it has become filled with AI slop.
If you hop over to the PlayStation Store and search for “Tralalero Tralala,” you’ll discover about a dozen “games” with artwork featuring a shark wearing shoes. Type in “Tung Tung” and you’ll get a bunch of slop featuring the same image of a wooden doll man with a baseball bat. And if you look up “Bombardiro” you’ll find some AI artwork of an alligator/plane hybrid. These are all online memes referred to by many as “Italian Brainrot.” Many of these games are made by the same few companies that seem to exclusively produce this junk.
Here’s what one of the games, Tralalero Tralala Jumper, looks like:
It’s not just weird memes from TikTok that are being turned into AI slop. Another popular topic for these “games” is the internet’s creepy but now overused “Backrooms” concept, and there are so many games about digging a hole, inspired directly by the smash hit Steam game, A Game About Digging A Hole.
For now, these games don’t generally show up when you search for something like Grand Theft Auto or Fortnite, so I assume most people aren’t running into them. However, I’ve spotted these games appearing in different parts of the store while looking for other stuff. And I can only imagine how many younger kids are searching up some of those “Italian Brainrot” memes and buying games based on them. Many of these titles featuring AI art are priced very low. Tralalero Tralala Jumper, for example, is only 50 cents.
I’m honestly baffled as to why Sony is letting this stuff live on the PlayStation Store next to big games like God of War and indie darlings like Blue Prince. It makes the store feel less like a curated collection of great games and more like a landfill where anyone can dump their garbage. It took me just a few minutes to locate dozens of these games, and it seems wild to me that Sony doesn’t have a few people on staff going through and deleting some of the most egregious crap on the store.
If something isn’t done soon I wouldn’t be surprised if this AI slop becomes a bigger problem, with more and more folks stumbling upon this junk as they shop the PlayStation Store.
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