Knowledge is Power (PlayStation) quietly died: here's the alternative
Six phones, one TV and a quiz show that pulled in the whole room: Knowledge is Power was our friend group's go-to game for years. Until Sony quietly pulled it from the store and the app vanished from the app stores. This is what exactly happened, what you can still do with it in 2026, and why we ended up building our own alternative.
By Roy de Bie · Updated August 31, 2026 · 6 min read
In short
What Knowledge is Power was
Knowledge is Power launched in late 2017 for the PlayStation 4, made by Wish Studios and published by Sony as part of the PlayLink series. The idea was simple and brilliant: the PlayStation puts a full quiz show on the TV, and everyone plays along on their own phone through a free companion app. No passing controllers around, no two-player limit: with two to six people you climbed the "Pyramid of Knowledge", voted on categories and sabotaged each other with power plays, like freezing answers or smearing someone's screen with virtual gunk.
The game was fully localized too, questions and voice-over both. In 2018 a standalone follow-up appeared, Knowledge is Power: Decades, with pop culture questions from the eighties through the tens. For a night on the sofa with friends there was little that could touch it, and we were not alone in thinking that: it is often called the spiritual successor to Buzz!.
How it quietly vanished
There was never a press release in which Sony announced the end of Knowledge is Power. It went in small steps, and unless you happened to try to buy it at the wrong moment, you never noticed:
- February 2019: developer Wish Studios closes its doors. From then on there is nobody left to develop the game; the PS4 version stays on version 1.01 forever and the question set was never expanded.
- November 2023: Knowledge is Power disappears from the PlayStation Store without announcement, along with most other PlayLink games. Buying it digitally has been impossible since.
- December 2023: Sony notes on the app store pages that the companion app is no longer offered on newer Android versions.
- During 2025: the app disappears entirely from both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Anyone who owns the game on disc but never downloaded the app before simply cannot join anymore.
The full timeline is neatly documented on Delisted Games, and you can see it for yourself on the PlayStation Store: the page still exists, the buy button does not.
Why we built Kwishetwel
We were in the camp that did notice. Knowledge is Power was the game that went on whenever more than two of us were on the sofa, and nothing replaced it: no sequel, no new questions, eventually not even an app. That gap is a big part of why Kwishetwel exists. We wanted the same feeling back, a quiz show on the big screen that everyone joins with their phone, but without a console, and without the risk that the game you put money into quietly stops existing.
What works the same
The core of Knowledge is Power is exactly how Kwishetwel works. One screen is the quiz show: with us that is a TV, laptop or projector with a browser, instead of a PlayStation. Everyone plays on their own phone, at the same time, with a ticking timer. Whoever is fastest and right most often wins. Players install nothing and create no account: they scan a QR code or enter a short code and they are in. Which also means there is no companion app that can ever be pulled from an app store.
What is different
Kwishetwel is not a copy, and in a few places it is deliberately roomier than the original:
- No six-player limit. Knowledge is Power stopped at six. With us you can play with big groups, or solo against the clock.
- More kinds of rounds. Beyond multiple choice there are estimation questions, map questions where you drop a pin, top lists, open questions, word associations and music rounds.
- Your own questions. Next to the ready-made quizzes you build your own rounds in the studio, for instance about your own friend group. How to go about that is in how to make your own pub quiz.
- A penalty wheel instead of power plays. We do not have ice-and-gunk sabotage. Our chaos element is the penalty wheel: whoever loses spins a wheel of dares you set up yourself, from singing a song to doing a shot.
- It is maintained. A new quiz is added every Thursday, and the game itself is actively developed. Which is exactly the difference with a game whose studio closed in 2019.
In all fairness: two things you will not get back from us. Knowledge is Power had a voiced quiz host and 3D characters with the production value of a real TV show, and the power plays were a stroke of genius in their own right. If that is mainly what you came for, you will miss it in every alternative, ours included.
| Kwishetwel | Knowledge is Power | |
|---|---|---|
| Players play on | their phone, in the browser: nothing to install | their phone, via an app that can no longer be downloaded |
| What you need | one screen with a browser: TV, laptop or projector | a PS4 or PS5 plus a TV |
| Player count | from solo to big groups | 2 to 6 |
| Questions | a brand-new quiz every Thursday, plus your own questions | a fixed set from 2017, never expanded |
| Round types | multiple choice, estimation, map questions, top lists, open questions, music rounds and more | multiple choice and touch challenges |
| Losing has consequences | a penalty wheel with your own dares | power plays to sabotage each other |
| Status | actively developed | no longer for sale, app pulled from the stores |
| Price | free to start, subscription for extra round types | was about 20 euros, now second-hand discs only |
Comparison checked in August 2026; the Knowledge is Power column comes from the sources linked above.
Can you still play Knowledge is Power in 2026?
Sometimes. If you own the game on disc or bought it digitally back then, and the app is still on your phone or in your app store purchase history, it still works, including on a PS5 through backwards compatibility. The problem is everyone new: a friend with a new phone who never had the app cannot download it anymore and therefore cannot join. The one game you buy to play with ever-changing groups is, in practice, dying out because of it.
If you just want to quiz tonight with whoever is there, that takes a few minutes with us: the host creates a free account, puts a quiz on the big screen, and everyone else scans the QR code. For what to make of such a night, read a drinking game for big groups and 100+ pub quiz questions with answers.
Further reading: how to make your own pub quiz, fun penalties for the penalty wheel and Kwishetwel as a Kahoot alternative.