Sony may be sued over limiting its digital game sales exclusively to the PlayStation Store

teamlocust · May 7, 2021

digital editions of consoles are the biggest con of gaming industry.

TomSwitch · May 7, 2021

smf said:
There is a similar situation with car parking, a company will charge you in blocks of an hour for parking but if you only need to park for 5 minutes you can't sell or give your ticket to someone else.

You also can't buy a train ticket that goes from a to b, but get off at c and hand it to someone else to continue the journey.

Those parking ticket you pay and display can be use by another if you don't make full use of it. For digital purchase I suppose if you want to share you can make one account per game purchase and share that with people without much concern. Many people can use it just not at the same time online. You can form a game club and don't even need to meet to exchange the disc. Until they start to limit the number of account that can be use on one machine.

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teamlocust said:
digital editions of consoles are the biggest con of gaming industry.

Everything is going digital. Even money. There are places that no longer accept paper money strange as it may be a few years ago. Won't be long before not having a digital wallet makes one a weirdo. Many have predicted that this will be the last console generation with disc drive.

teamlocust · May 7, 2021

money/digital transactions are different than license based games....lol there is no comparison

TomSwitch · May 7, 2021

Charging US$100 for a disc drive is a pretty big con

smf · May 7, 2021

TomSwitch said:
Those parking ticket you pay and display can be use by another if you don't make full use of it.

Not in this country, at least they print on the ticket that you can't transfer them and they will sue you if they have evidence.

MasterJ360 · May 7, 2021

TomSwitch said:
I think the trend is unstoppable. I used to have a treasured collection of CDs. Now I don't have a CD player. The way to watch video at home used to be to rent a disc, now it's all digital streaming. How many people think about "buying" a movie at this day and age? "Buying" a game may go the same way. I am not worried about Netflix going away, other company will take it's place. As to the ability to play the game you bought longer term both has it's problem.

But you still have ppl who don't use any subscribing services including me your trying to generalize a preference over the masses. If ppl truly never buy disks of anything then why are retail stores still selling them? My new PC has no disk drive so im forced to digital download my games. The choice to buy a disk copy isn't there for me to choose. Its the same as a console where before Sony decided to change their mind about the ps3/vita store if you bought all of your games digitally and you happen to delete them for storage space you were screwed b/c the store would be down meaning you could never download them again. This makes me even more skeptical about relying to any gaming store service. Movies aren't a big deal b/c you can get them anywhere even on streaming sites.

TomSwitch · May 7, 2021

MasterJ360 said:
But you still have ppl who don't use any subscribing services including me your trying to generalize a preference over the masses. If ppl truly never buy disks of anything then why are retail stores still selling them? My new PC has no HDD so im forced to digital download my games. The choice to buy a disk copy isn't there for me to choose. Its the same as a console where before Sony decided to change their mind about the ps3/vita store if you bought all of your games digitally and you happen to delete them for storage space you were screwed b/c the store would be down meaning you could never download them again. This makes me even more skeptical about relying to any gaming store service. Movies aren't a big deal b/c you can get them anywhere even on streaming sites.

I don't know if my PS3 or Vita still works. It's a matter of time that it will stop working. There isn't much we can do about it no matter which form the game was bought in. I have Nintendo cartridge that no longer works and LCD that collapse when I power it up. Digital or cartridge it can't out live the HW. It's a observation not a preference. I have games that I bought from apple app store that I can no longer run because it is 32bit. Nothing about what I want but it is what it is. Would I like to be able to rent a blue ray movie disc from a neighborhood store? Maybe I do, but there is not such choice.

I haven't bought any boxed PC game since a long time but the last one I bought already came with useless disc. For most people the disc for console is very close to useless except for DRM and PC already force you to go online and don't use disc based DRM. Maybe it was diablo 3. That would be almost ten years ago.

D34DL1N3R · May 7, 2021

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:
Damn, sucks to be a PlayStation user I guess.

I can speak only for myself, but it doesn't suck whatsoever to be a PlayStation user.

Xzi said:
it definitely sucks for anybody who went with the all-digital PS5.

I wouldn't say that. My guess is that most people probably don't even care whatsoever. I have a disc PS5, but I only bought it for the 4K player. If they don't add Dolby Vision support for 4K Blu-rays sooner than later I'll actually sell it and get a digital only version because my only physical games are from PS2 and earlier & I'd rather use the extra $100 towards a more capable 4K Blu player.

teamlocust said:
digital editions of consoles are the biggest con of gaming industry.

I question how long you've been a gamer, or how much of a gamer you are. Absolutely 100% far from the biggest con of the gaming industry. Far, far, FAR from it.

This entire thread is filled with (for the most part) nothing but hypocritical, Sony hating, trash talk from Nintendo fan boys who want to bitch about this yet are silent about things like Nintendo charging $60 for old ass games. Are you all going to tell me that Nintendo and Xbox games are never priced higher in the eShop or Microsoft Store than what a physical copy would cost? Why all of the Sony hate for this when the other guys are every bit as guilty of what most people here are complaining about? Every game I have for PS3, PS4 and PS5 is digital and I'll keep saying this... the majority of them of them I purchased for LESS than what physical copy would have cost me. This topic is stupid and overblown. I hope the case fails miserably.

duwen · May 7, 2021

Hurrah! No more digital sales!

But seriously, how is this any different than Nintendo operates or most other stores that distribute digitally? So what? You can buy a voucher that you can use instead of currency?!

Also... this can be read as "Platform holder has the monopoly on it's own platform, some butthurt object"

Seliph · May 7, 2021

Scott_pilgrim said:
I have bad news for you

wtf

Taleweaver · May 7, 2021

Xzi said:
The difference is usually about 10% off for end users, and a higher cut for developers/publishers. Steam gives out keys to developers with a 100% cut to them, to be sold through their own website and elsewhere, but of course most people buy through Steam anyway.

Do I know if not allowing third-party key/voucher sales runs afoul of any countries' laws? Nah. But both Nintendo and Microsoft do it so who knows.

Yes, because that's what usually happens when you buy in bulk. You speculate on what you can sell and then negotiate a discount (humble : 'ey AAA studio. How about I buy five thousand copies of your game for 15% of the sale price (so I can sell them for 10% off later) ?'). From what I understand, those other stores buy the actual games first. If they have to pay full price, there 'd be hardly demand for it in the first place (it's not like the other platforms want to make a loss).

Higher cut for the developers is a different thing. And for which I can't buy say the same for the epic store situation : it's up to them to think whether they want to sell it on the ps5. I honestly don't see how the situation would improve with more middle men in between.

D34DL1N3R · May 7, 2021

TomSwitch said:
Charging US$100 for a disc drive is a pretty big con

Because 4K Blu-ray drives are selling for significantly less elsewhere?

TomSwitch · May 7, 2021

D34DL1N3R said:
Because 4K Blu-ray drives are selling for significantly less elsewhere?

It's probably a $10 component.

D34DL1N3R · May 7, 2021

TomSwitch said:
It's probably a $10 component.

Mark ups apply to practically everything you buy. Just don't buy anything. Ever.

TomSwitch · May 8, 2021

D34DL1N3R said:
Mark ups apply to practically everything you buy. Just don't buy anything. Ever.

It's a parody to "digital editions of consoles are the biggest con of gaming industry.". Value can be measured in many way. The markup a merchant put over their cost depends greatly on how much they can get away with. The markup Sony put on the disc version compared to the digital only version is significantly higher. Fact or Myth? Physical is cheaper than Digital. Fact or Myth?
Sony makes more money when you buy digital. Fact or Myth?
If I call the markup on disc version a "Sony tax" would it make you happier?

MercusMassacre · May 8, 2021

Chary said:
View attachment 261837

Sony is set to possibly face legal troubles, regarding how it handles digital game sales. A class-action lawsuit is in the process of being filed, attempting to take action against Sony's alleged monopoly over digital game sales on its platform. In 2019, the company stopped allowing retailers to sell digital vouchers of PlayStation Store titles, and according to the lawsuit, this means Sony can charge whatever it pleases for its games, potentially hurting consumers due to a lack of market competition.

The suit also alleges that there have been instances where consumers have had to pay 175% more for a digital copy than a physical one. For right now, the class-action lawsuit is only being proposed, and if it moves forward, it'll be filed in San Francisco, California, under the case of Caccuri v. Sony Interactive Entertainment, in the US District Court of Northern California.

Source: Bloomberg

When a company wants to sell its own games and gets sued lmao

jeffyTheHomebrewer · May 8, 2021

MercusMassacre said:
When a company wants to sell its own games and gets sued lmao

The thing is that other companies, like Amazon or Gamestop/EB Games can't re-sell game keys. (Or, as I prefer to call them, Download Codes.) That's why they're getting sued.

D34DL1N3R · May 8, 2021

TomSwitch said:
The markup Sony put on the disc version compared to the digital only version is significantly higher. Fact or Myth? Physical is cheaper than Digital. Fact or Myth?
Sony makes more money when you buy digital. Fact or Myth?
If I call the markup on disc version a "Sony tax" would it make you happier?

1) It depends on a persons idea of "significantly". Imo it is not that significant. Neither fact nor myth.
2) 100% dependent on the physical vs digital price of any given game at any given time. Fact or "myth" cannot be determined without being specific at any given moment. I've personally paid less for digital games than what a physical copy would have cost, a very large number of times. Apples to oranges.
3) Fact
4) "IF" you said it? You did say it. Fact. But no, it doesn't have any emotional effect on me one way or another. Does it make you happier having actually said it? It was kinda a weird question. Shrug.

jeffyTheHomebrewer · May 8, 2021

And why call it "Sony tax"? Isn't the slight markup to make up for the manufacturing cost to make a disc??

TomSwitch · May 8, 2021

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:
And why call it "Sony tax"? Isn't the slight markup to make up for the manufacturing cost to make a disc??

People often call the high markup apple charge for iPhone a "apple tax". You pay this tax for the public good apple do. Same here you pay "Sony tax" so they can create nice console for the "public good". Those who go for the higher end model often pay more "tax" for the public good. Same for those who buy games at full price. As long as they are able to effectively stratify customer (example having the disc drive) so those able and willing customer continue to pay the higher tax they can earn extra money by offering a lower margin system to make extra money.

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