PlayStation Store at 20 - the games that caught developers off guard

Sony Interactive Entertainment has marked the 20th anniversary of PlayStation Store by asking developers across PlayStation Studios and third-party studios to name a game from the past two decades that caught them by surprise. The exercise, published on the PlayStation Blog and written by content communications manager Tim Turi, is framed as a reflection on discovery rather than a commercial scorecard, with contributors describing games they did not expect to enjoy as much as they did or that won them over unexpectedly. PlayStation Blog report.

An Anniversary Built Around Discovery

The retrospective positions PlayStation Store as a connector between players and games of varying scale, from blockbuster adventures to independent releases. Rather than presenting a chart or a ranking, Sony invited a handful of named developers to recall a single title each, and the resulting list spans several console generations and store eras.

Turi notes that a 20 Years of PlayStation Store Showcase would go live on the day of publication, offering deals and a curated selection of hand-picked titles. The anniversary framing therefore combines reflection from creators with a promotional storefront moment, though the developer contributions themselves concern personal experiences of play rather than the store's performance.

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Card Games and Hidden Layers

Naoki Hamaguchi, director of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series at Square Enix, chose Balatro, describing how its foundation in familiar poker rules gave way to satisfaction as scores scaled up through progression and combinations. He framed it as a reminder of why games are enjoyable to play in the first place.

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Narrative, Atmosphere and Reinvention

Jonathan Burke, senior director of technology at Santa Monica Studio, picked Dragon Quest XI: Echos of an Elusive Age, praising the charm of its story, character design and world, and the twists that disrupted any sense of a clear path ahead. Ramone Russell, director of product development communications and brand strategy at San Diego Studio, chose God of War, saying the studio's PlayStation 4 achievement was mind-boggling to him and that its treatment of fatherhood, self-control, grief and identity won him over.

Marcus Smith, creative director at Insomniac Games, named Playdead's Inside, noting its lack of interface and dialogue and the way it teaches without obvious instruction, with visuals and audio matching an ambiguous story that lingers after completion. This group of reflections leans on craft and emotional resonance rather than mechanical surprise.

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Rhythm, Scale and Blockbuster Set Pieces

Bruno Velazquez, game director at Santa Monica Studio, described Sayonara Wild Hearts as a title that captivated him despite his usual lack of interest in games built around musical and rhythm elements, drawing him in through its style, story and soundtrack until he felt fully invested. Nicolas Doucet, studio director at Team Asobi, looked further back to Shadow of the Colossus on PlayStation 2, characterising its journey across open plains and encounters with giant creatures as a David and Goliath structure that celebrates heroic loneliness.

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What This Means for Practitioners

Recommended practice one is to treat anniversary messaging as a discovery story rather than a performance story, since this retrospective rests on named developer reflections and does not present sales, rankings or measured outcomes. Recommended practice two is to build anniversary content from a specific, constrained prompt, as Sony did by asking for a single surprising game rather than a favourite, which yields varied and credible answers across eras and studios.