20 Years of PlayStation Store (From PS3 to PS5): From Balatro to Shadow of the Colossus, 8 Top Devs Share the Games That Surprised Them Most
First launched in November 2006 alongside the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Store is officially celebrating its 20th anniversary this November 2026. Over the past two decades, Sony's digital storefront has evolved from early downloadable experiments on the PS3 XMB interface into the central nervous system of the PS4 and PS5 ecosystem, which just received the recent PS5 firmware 14.22 system update. To mark the milestone, Sony is rolling out the 20 Years of PlayStation Store Showcase today at 11:00 AM local time with curated deals, alongside a special roundtable where eight directors and studio veterans from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners reveal the games from the past twenty years that caught them completely by surprise.
Beyond the Obvious Classics: Games That Won Creators Over Unexpectedly
Rather than asking developers to list their predictable all-time favorites, PlayStation posed a much more revealing question on the official PlayStation Blog: which game from the past two decades did you not expect to enjoy nearly as much as you did, or managed to win you over in a completely unexpected way? From Tokyo to Santa Monica and Helsinki, the answers highlight an inspiring bridge between indie gems and first-party narrative landmarks.
Naoki Hamaguchi and Jonathan Burke: Balatro's Score Chasing and Dragon Quest XI's Twists
Leading the lineup is Naoki Hamaguchi, Director of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series at Square Enix. At a time when players are closely watching how major Japanese studios are optimizing their engines for current-gen hardware, Hamaguchi points to LocalThunk's deckbuilding phenomenon Balatro (PS4 and PS5, 2024) as the ultimate reminder of pure gameplay joy:
"The game that comes to mind is Balatro. While it's based on the simple, familiar rules of poker, I became completely hooked on the sense of satisfaction that comes from seeing your scores grow bigger and bigger through progression and different combinations. It's a truly compelling game that reminds me why games are so much fun to play in the first place."
In a fitting cross-studio nod, a Square Enix flagship was the exact title that blindsided Jonathan Burke, Senior Director of Technology at Santa Monica Studio. Burke singled out Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4, 2018), praising the undeniable charm of its world and character design, and noting that whenever the road ahead seemed obvious, the RPG shattered the illusion with an unexpected narrative twist.
From God of War to Uncharted 2: First-Party Creators Salute Console Landmarks
Several PlayStation Studios veterans used the 20th anniversary retrospective to highlight how deeply their peers' work affected them as players. Ramone Russell, Director of Product Development Communications and Brand Strategy at San Diego Studio, admitted he never expected to love 2018's God of War on PS4 as deeply as he did:
- Reinventing Kratos: Russell noted that across God of War 1, 2, and 3, Kratos was largely defined by relentless rage and anger with minimal emotional depth.
- Unexpected Emotional Weight: Themes of fatherhood, self-control, breaking toxic cycles, grief, and identity were nowhere near his bingo card, yet Santa Monica Studio balanced those emotional arcs with top-tier combat on PS4 hardware.
Meanwhile, Gregory Louden, Creative Director at Housemarque, looked back to the PS3 era with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009). Even after being maximally hyped by Naughty Dog's famous stage demo, the final release blew past his expectations with relentless cinematic set pieces, unmatched production values, and a cast that made playing on PS3 feel like stepping inside a summer blockbuster.
For Nicolas Doucet, Studio Director at Team Asobi (the team behind Astro Bot), the standout memory remains Shadow of the Colossus (originally released on PS2 in 2005 and remade for PS4). Galloping across vast plains with only a horse and a sword to topple giant colossi and save a loved one from a deep slumber represents the ultimate David versus Goliath tale, celebrating heroic loneliness through historic technological ambition and an unforgettable score.
Inscryption, Inside, and Sayonara Wild Hearts: Indie Mastery Takes Center Stage
The remaining three picks underscore how indie titles have shaped the creative DNA of the PlayStation Store over the last twenty years:
- Arne Meyer (Head of Culture and Communications at Naughty Dog) picked Inscryption (PS4 and PS5, 2022): Expecting nothing more than a creepy tabletop card battler, Meyer was floored by how deeply the card modifiers interact and how much the game trusts players to unpack its multi-layered narrative and shifting game design on their own. On a personal note, Meyer shared that his household's late cat lives on inside the game as the custom "lil toot boi" Build-a-Card.
- Marcus Smith (Creative Director at Insomniac Games) chose Playdead's Inside (PS4, 2016): Ten years after launch, Smith still marvels at how the game operates with zero UI, zero dialogue, and no explicit instructions, guiding players via an effortless "invisible hand" while delivering an ambiguous audiovisual story that lingers in the mind for a decade.
- Bruno Velazquez (Game Director at Santa Monica Studio) highlighted Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS4, 2019): Despite rarely gravitating toward rhythm or music-driven gameplay loops, Velazquez was immediately hooked by its vibrant pop aesthetic in motion and could not put the controller down until he finished the story.
My Perspective
Twenty years after the PlayStation Store first booted up on the PS3's XMB menu in November 2006, this developer roundtable is a breath of fresh air. Seeing the director of Final Fantasy VII Remake rave about chasing high scores in Balatro while veterans from Naughty Dog and Insomniac praise the fearless design of Inscryption and Inside proves a timeless truth: even for creators leading massive AAA productions, pure mechanical ingenuity and bold artistic vision are what leave the deepest mark.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
