Press X For Trophies is a PlayStation Store parody of shovelware games that promise to take your money in exchange for a platinum trophy.

Sony's PlayStation Store is dealing with a big problem stemming from its trophy hunting culture, and Press X For Trophies certainly drew attention to it. Shovelware games have plagued the storefront, promising quick platinum trophies for users willing to pay anything from a few cents to a few dollars for the privilege. However, unlike most shovelware games, Press X For Trophies (which has since been removed from the PlayStation Store) was self-aware regarding the problem, poking fun at itself and the PlayStation Store through its gameplay and store description.

Sony introduced its trophy system on the PlayStation 3 in 2008 and has since made it a mandatory addition to all games released on its consoles, except for classics republished on the newer consoles. Although, some older games still add trophy support, such as PS Classic Syphon Filter for Playstation Plus. Its push for trophies have added a value to game completion that is now being taken advantage of by a few games whose entire existence relies on players that specifically chase trophies. These titles are usually asset swaps from studios or individuals that recycle content between games in an attempt to get a few quick dollars from people looking to add platinum trophies to their collection. Sony itself is also partly to blame for the issue, as its first major update to the PlayStation trophy system in 2020, in preparation for the release of the PlayStation 5, gave more weight to platinum trophies than they had ever had.

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As reported by Push Square, one such game that wishes to take advantage of PlayStation's newest push for platinum trophies was Press X For Trophies. It's was a game listed on the PlayStation store with no release date, but with a description that was a vehement rebuke of the very system in which it plans to participate. The description purports that it's "slightly ironic, and the story is told through its Trophy system". The game promises to decry the current sad state of trophy hunting, while also using the trophies themselves to tell a story. While this game plans to make trophy hunting easy for the sake of telling a story and parodying the current state of affairs, other games take trophy hunting to new levels, like the Horizon Forbidden West trophy that plants a tree when players unlock it.

The ease with which games like Press X For Trophies can find themselves on the PlayStation store is an ironic twist to the very culture that PlayStation tried to cultivate by including trophies in the first place. While Press X For Trophies promised to be a parody of this dark corner of the PlayStation store, it is still a superfluous game that has still gotten approval to be released in the first place. This is something that will hopefully change, and if games like this one are any indication, the people are calling for that very change.

Recently, by making platinum trophies more important, PlayStation increased the demand for all trophies, since platinum trophies require all other trophies to be completed. While most games use trophies as intended, other developers use it as a challenge, such as The Witcher 3's secret achievements and trophies. Other people still use trophies as a way to make money, something that will hopefully die out before it gets worse. However, the fact that Press X For Trophies has been removed from the PlayStation Store is perhaps an indication that it worked - perhaps PlayStation will remove more shovelware in the future, thus solving the problem Press X For Trophies was mocking.

Fotis Banis is a Senior Gaming News Writer with Screen Rant. Spending much too large a part of his childhood playing any and all kinds of videogames, Fotis grew up with an appreciation for every aspect of the gaming space, from fiction, to technology, to art, and much more. With a BA in Creative Writing from Hunter College in NY, Fotis is marrying his passions and realizing his dream of writing about videogames. He currently lives in Athens, Greece, with his girlfriend, and spends his free time playing the games he loves writing about.