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.

Sony's monopoly allows it to charge supracompetitive prices for digital PlayStation games, which are significantly higher than their physical counterparts sold in a competitive retail market, and significantly higher than they would be in a competitive retail market for digital games.

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

 

[Skelletonike]

Damn, everyone is suing everyone.
Is this year the suing simulator year?

 

[Deleted member 532471]

Oh for a moment I thought this meant Square enix, Capcom and others would finally be able to release their ps1 games in other platforms without having to remake or remaster and rerelease them as a new thing

I wanna play ps1/2 games on my switch, but it seems Sony keeps them on a very tight leash....

 

[Teletron1]

I say good big Corps think they can do what they want especially when it comes to digital

 

[Kioku]

Okay... Cool...

I dont know what this may lead to... But, it can be good??

 

[tabzer]

I'm torn, but I can see myself adapting to either outcome.

 

[x65943]

Yay for consumer protection

 

[Flame]

Damn, everyone is suing everyone.
Is this year the suing similator year?

suing simulator? THAT'S MY IDEA!

im suing you..

 

[Blasingame]

Damn, everyone is suing everyone.
Is this year the suing similator year?

if Capcom's Ace Attorney games weren't enough to get your court room fix, i guess there should be an Attorney simulator game.

 

[Foxi4]

Sony is in the wrong here, even if they're following the status quo. You can go to any video game store and buy a digital copy of a video game in the form of a code receipt - this is applicable to Microsoft, Nintendo and, until recently, Sony. I've never seen it as advantageous as the prices usually stick to the original MSRP, but it does preclude game stores from selling digital copies of titles that they used to be able to sell. As far as I'm concerned there should be no difference between selling physical copies and digital codes - software is software, the method of obtaining it should be immaterial. If I have a valid code for a software download, I should be able to sell said code to another user if I so choose. The legal kerfuffle here is licensing - it is unclear if I hold a license for the software prior to redeeming the code. Technically I don't - I get to agree to the software license at the point of redemption. With that said, that should make Sony even more removed from the transaction - if this is the case, I'm selling a piece of paper with a number on it, it just so happens that the number is active on their network and leads to a copy of software.

 

[kevin corms]

I think they will end up having to change the way digital stores work, and the amount of control sony and others have over digital titles. I shouldnt lose access to all my games if I do something to piss sony off. I also understand that sony sells the hardware at a loss and their business model relies on royalties.

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I say good big Corps think they can do what they want especially when it comes to digital

True, and sony (and others) have been charging people for games that just run on an emulator instead of offering bc for a disk copy. They also started the trend of changing config settings of a game and calling it a "remaster". God of war collection was exactly the same as on ps2, but it rendered at 720p... which pcsx2 shows can be done easily within seconds.

 

[Jiehfeng]

Great, hope this goes through.

 

[diggeloid]

All of these anti-trust lawsuits lately are great and I hope they continue. Lots of companies (especially tech) are guilty of anti-competitive bullshit that hurt consumers, society, and innovation.

 

[Spider_Man]

Oh for a moment I thought this meant Square enix, Capcom and others would finally be able to release their ps1 games in other platforms without having to remake or remaster and rerelease them as a new thing

I wanna play ps1/2 games on my switch, but it seems Sony keeps them on a very tight leash....

If devs wish to release its old titles on other platforms, sony does not prevent them.

Fuck me, look at all the old games thats been ported over to the switch, that makes up probably 90% of its games (not indy mobile app crap)

 

[ZeroFX]

hur derp, this is going to far, every fucking thing is "muhnopuhly" or "anti-trust!!11!", it will be the butthurtry of the decade, will only become worse.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Tech industry sailed on unregulated seas for too long. Legislators took decades to understand how things works, but techs are now starting to be obliged to comply with the laws, like all of us do.

Since this is the Internet, don't hurt to say the obvious: the anti consumer practices here is not restricted to Sony, and a development on cases like this touch every gamer regardless of the platform.

 

[Bladexdsl]

LOL steam has gotten away with doing this for years! late to the party sony

 

[CloudStrife190100]

£45 for retail and £65-70 for digital........ I'll stick to the cheaper option

 

[Seliph]

If this means I can get Bloodborne on PC then I'm all for it baybee

 

[K3Nv2]

Here's 2 million we lost over that law suit, here's another 2 years waiting for your ps5s cuz we lost.