Ternox Games, the developer and publisher of several indie titles including the much-beloved 2023 game STONKS-9800: Stock Market Simulator, has announced that Sony has “unilaterally terminated” its PlayStation publishing agreement. As a result, all of Ternox Games’ titles “are scheduled to be removed from the PlayStation Store after August 23,” and the publisher has been given no explanation for Sony’s sudden termination.
As spotted by Automaton, Ternox Games announced the sudden termination last night, and revealed that 14 of their previously published games on the PlayStation Store will be removed in the next seven days. “PlayStation Support refuses to listen to my arguments or even respond to my emails in any way,” Ternox Games stated in a post on X. “This means I will no longer be able to self-publish my games on PlayStation.”
“I had hoped to release the PS5 version in 2027 and make a physical disc edition while that was still possible,” they continued. “Sadly, that will not happen—but I’ll do my best to create a physical edition for PC and Switch.”
STONKS-9800 will not be coming to PS5.
Sony @PlayStation unilaterally terminated my PlayStation developer and publisher agreement without giving me any reason.
My existing games are scheduled to be removed from the PlayStation Store after August 23. pic.twitter.com/NQRnAmdyRb
— Ternox Games 🇺🇦 【STONKS-9800】OUT NOW! (@Taimumari) August 16, 2026
As many have already pointed out, Sony has been on an anti-shovelware crusade over the past couple of years, wiping more than 1,000 titles from the PlayStation Store in March 2026 alone. However, Ternox Games most certainly is not a shovelware publisher—well, not exclusively, at least.
Look, there are some suspect titles in Ternox Games’ portfolio, like whatever the hell Finger Fitness is, but the majority of its published titles are simply low-budget indie games. Take something like Taimumari: Complete Edition, for example. That’s not shovelware; it’s just a very low-budget platformer.
And for what it’s worth, the quality of Ternox Games’ output has significantly improved over the past few years. STONKS-9800: Stock Market Simulator, which was set to be released on the PlayStation Store, has the title of a game that might sound like shovelware, but it’s currently sitting at “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam with almost 3,000 reviews.
So, if Ternox Games isn’t a purveyor of low-effort slop, why is it being targeted? There’s no way to know for sure at this point without an official explanation from Sony, but if I had to wager a guess, I think that this is perhaps a result of some kind of automated process. Maybe a couple of Ternox Games’ titles were flagged as shovelware-esque, and that triggered an automatic wipe of the publisher’s games, but it’s impossible to know for sure unless Sony either directly comments or reverses its decision.
