Regardless of how gamers feel about the “console wars,” everyone agrees that the PlayStation 4 was an excellent system. The console had a sleek design, a fantastic UI, and some of the most memorable exclusives of the era. The best PS4 games became instant classics, and some of them are so popular they’ve been remade over and over again.
That’s not to say the console was perfect. In fact, the worst PS4 games ever made could easily stand alongside some of the worst games in history overall. Ultimately the good outweighs the bad with the PS4, but aside from the games that were misfires, there’s one other flaw in the console that we can’t let go: Some classic PS4 are completely unplayable now. Looking through these games will take you back to the earliest days of the PS4 and make you think of gaming experiences you’ve probably forgotten — because none of them can be had anymore.
The Lost Child
Developed by Crim for the PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and Nintendo Switch, 2017’s “The Lost Child” was a sequel to “El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron” that many gamers never knew existed. “El Shaddai” was a third-person hack-and-slash action game, but “The Lost Child” is a first-person dungeon crawler with some RPG elements thrown in the mix. The story follows a supernatural investigator who meets an angel and gets pulled into a battle between heaven and hell.
“The Lost Child” received some praise for its dungeon design, storytelling, and art style, but the game didn’t receive nearly the same amount of acclaim as its predecessor. In the end some questionable pacing and a too-repetitive battle system held “The Lost Child” back from being a major hit. That’s not what ultimately killed the game, however.
In June 2023, “The Lost Child” publisher NISAmerica announced that the game, alongside a handful of other titles, was being removed from digital storefronts. NIS didn’t give a reason for the removal, but the company had only been licensing “The Lost Child” from Kadokawa Games, so it may have been an issue of publishing rights. Regardless of what caused the removal, “The Lost Child” all but vanished, and today only rare physical copies appear online, sometimes selling for hundreds of dollars.
Godzilla
In 2014, Bandai Namco published a “Godzilla” game on the PlayStation 4 that put players in control of the king of the monsters. “Godzilla” is a fighting game where players can tackle some of the biggest creatures in the monsterverse and harness the power of the big green guy to level buildings themselves. The game was quietly delisted from North American and European PlayStation Stores in 2017, and four years later it was removed from Japanese stores as well. Bandai didn’t make an announcement explaining the delisting, but it’s possible that the publisher’s licensing agreement with Toho Company, which owns the rights to Godzilla’s universe, expired.
“Godzilla” is basically unplayable today, but don’t worry, you probably aren’t missing much. A reviewer for HonestGamers wrote, “I can think of only one product that started off as mostly inoffensive and from there soured to the point of absolute repugnance: ‘Godzilla’ on PlayStation 4.” The game was universally panned, but that hasn’t stopped rare physical copies from becoming highly prized collector’s items. A game that players couldn’t quit fast enough in 2014 now sells for hundreds of dollars online.
The Legend of Korra
Platinum Games, the developer behind “Bayonetta” and “Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance,” developed a beat-’em-up game in the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” universe in 2014. “The Legend of Korra” takes place in between seasons of the sequel TV series and tells an original story. Players control Korra in third-person action, unlocking all four bending elements as they progress through the game. It’s a single-player-only title, but completing the story unlocks an arena mode where players can compete in team-based combat with NPCs.
“The Legend of Korra” was delisted at the end of 2017 after a licensing agreement with publisher Activision expired. Less than three years isn’t a long lifespan for a game, but “The Legend of Korra” received a pretty mixed reception overall. Diehard fans of the show naturally gravitated toward it, and some of them have spent years asking about the game online. Because of its relatively poor reception, however, there just aren’t that many physical copies of “The Legend of Korra” around.
According to some gamers, “P.T.” might be the scariest game ever made, and it isn’t even really a game. Hideo Kojima’s “Playable Teaser” launched as a downloadable demo on the PlayStation Network in 2014. The demo was a first-person experience not unlike walking through a haunted house. “P.T.” really struck a nerve with some gamers and got them unbelievably excited for Kojima’s entry into the “Silent Hill” universe. Unfortunately, Kojima’s “Silent Hills” game got shelved, and in 2015 “P.T.” vanished from the PSN.
Gamers were disappointed by the cancellation, but they were even more upset that one of the PlayStation 4’s greatest horror experiences had vanished from existence. The rare few players who had “P.T.” installed on their hard drives were the only people who could still play the game, and some of them saw the moment as an opportunity. Shortly after “P.T.” officially disappeared, PS4 hard drives with the demo installed started popping up on eBay for outlandish prices. Sellers were hoping FOMO would inspire desperate gamers to shell out $1000 or more just to play the short demo. “P.T.” remains unplayable today, but it lives on in our memories — and our nightmares.
Little Big Planet 3
Sony Interactive Entertainment
“Little Big Planet 3” is one of the most charming platformers to ever grace the PlayStation 4. The game debuted in 2014 and presented players with a brand new adventure starring series protagonist Sackboy. Like other “Little Big Planet” games, the 2014 entry didn’t stop with the story mode. The game let players create their own levels, and over the years gamers added millions of different levels to the game’s servers. “Little Big Planet” had one of the most vibrant online communities on the PS4, but sadly it wasn’t meant to last.
In 2024 the “Little Big Planet 3” servers had a planned temporary outage in January that stretched on for months. In April, citing technical issues with the servers, Sony announced that the online portion of the game would be shut down for good. All the content that players had created over the years evaporated in an instant. Sony began ending the PS3 era in July 2026, but as long as the PS4 Store still exists, the “Little Big Planet 3” story mode will still be playable. The heart and soul of the game, however, is gone forever.
