Sony Sued Over PlayStation Store Exclusivity - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 July 2021 / 3,026 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment is facing a class-action lawsuit by consumers over its exclusivity over its digital storefront, the PlayStation Store, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The class-action lawsuit says that Sony stopped allowing third-party retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart from selling download codes for PlayStation games two years ago. This has resulted in the PlayStation Store itself being the only way to purchase digital games on PlayStation consoles.
"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," said the consumers.
The lawsuit claims people are paying as much as 175 percent more for downloadable games than physical version of the same games.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Digital selling dos inflate game prices rather than reducing them. I support this lawsuit and in a free market other digital stores should be able to sell the games into the consoles because that causes competition and decrease in prices.
The more options the customers get to buy games the better. Especially since funnelling everything into the digital market is going to end up backfiring on everyone.
I mentioned this in my article on SuperJump magazines website last month. ("Every Advantage Xbox Series X has over the PS5," under the Game distribution section.) But people messaged me saying it was a stupid thing to point out.... superjumpmagazine.com/every-advantage-the-xbox-series-x-has-over-the-ps5-29775f5340e7
Thought this was about allowing other storefronts onto the console at first. Wouldn't mind being able to shop PSN codes for more competitive prices.
That needs to happen across the board anyway, if games are going to be priced competitively. I don't buy digital games off big games because Sony, MS and Nintendo have always stuck to RRP in the UK on their digital stores, while high street and online stores usually have games cheaper even on new releases.
People know how to find and buy stuff off the new PlayStation Store?! God that redesign is awful...
This is why the death of physical media is bad for consumers. Physical media offers an outlet for a resale market, that in turn fuels sales on the digital market. Without a physical resale market to compete with you can expect games to go on sale less and less.
One thing that needs to be fucked off quicksmart is the notion of we maintain a physical and digital rrp status quo to offset any negative effect digital has on retail. that may have had a tiny bit of truth to it in the early days of digital sales growth even though physical having 80% or more of the market was the real reason.
But once you gain something of material benefit no matter the reason it can be harder than Heroin to give up .
Another bugbear is localised rrp that exceeds the exchange rate by a wide margin example in Australia the physical games are produced locally Sony owns the southern hemispheres largest blu-ray plant in Sydney that services most of the blu- ray -dvd industry covering southeast asia and oceania so that along with the fact that Australia has its own PSN store means that shipping costs can't be blamed .also during the gfc when the Aust dollar was worth more than the greenback it took ages for prices to drop compared to the reverse and then it never reached parity.
But isn't it ultimately a question of demand? Games are usually 60 now msrp. Some 70. It's not as though it's a necessary product. Either people want the game or they don't. Do we need sales? Most people I know waste money on games that are on sale. They buy them because they're cheap but never or hardly play them.
I feel like entertainment prices can't be scrutinized as much as necessary items such as food, clothing, lodging, etc. Entertainment is something that's inherently a waste of money. So you can't really get ripped off unless the company lies about the product. The information is out there. Nearly everyone has a smartphone at arm's reach most of the time.
So the only way it would be bad for consumers is if the quality of games decrease while the prices are controlled by one store. And even at that, read a book, watch a movie, listen to music, go for a walk. Video games aren't the only form of entertainment.
And I'm saying all this as someone who plays video games as my primary hobby.
So it begins...
Sony is getting a bit greedy ey!
Once yow on top, the higher the fall!
Obviously not a lawyer but from an economic perspective this is very much a question of market definition. Do we define "playstation digital games market" as a market over which competition rules should apply? It's also at the core of Apple vs. Epic Games. Is "app store" a monopoly since it's the only app store on iOS?
Apple's line is and will be that App Store is part of the Iphone/Ipad product, and hence that it competes in the mobile market against Samsung, etc. Sony will argue similarly that PS Store is in competition with the MS Store and eShop via the proxy of the console market. The numerical evidence is strong there. Big correlation between all console digital prices, and big correlation between all PC storefront prices. Also linguistically, people don't say Game Pass makes Xbox Store better value that PS store, they say Game Pass makes Xbox better value than Playstation, even though Gamepass is clearly a product which interacts only through the MS store. So if i had to bet I'd say that unless Epic win their lawsuit, Sony will win this one.
Damm Sony's so anti consumer "ps for payers"
Is there anything that is stopping publishers from releasing boxed versions of games that only have a download code in them? Then 3rd party retailers are free to discount those at their discretion. I think the current situation leaves the pricing up to the publishers. They can reduce the costs of their games on the PS Store at their own pleasure.
Publishers are also making more money from digital purchases. If a game is £60 on PSN, it has no packaging, is marked up (aka RRP) but there is VAT, then Sony gets their cut then the rest goes to the publisher/dev. If it's sold in a high street store as physical, there is VAT, the retailers cut, packaging and distribution costs before Sony gets their cut as platform fee then the rest goes to the publishers/devs, which I expect to be less than what they'd make from the digital sale.
I know there have been some cases of physical games being just download codes, that have been criticized... but when we see 80% of the sales being digital even if they cost more and can't be resold we see that there is little reason for companies to be more pro customer;.
The domino effect has begun.......
Ok, so basically there are a helluva lot of "monopolies" out there, in any field imaginable, if this is the basis now. Where will it end?
Man whatever. Sony is not a monopoly. PS Plus always has huge deals going on, Sony is giving away games for free literally with their Play At Home initiative. Mr. Jim Ryan retracted course on closing PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 online store. Psychical videogames are still very much an option for Sony consumers. This will likely end in a settlement or laughed out the courthouse by the judge this is ridiculous.
For the gamers.
I feel at this point we need a class action "United States vs Big Tech" for all this kind of rubbish, from app distribution, to key dealers to software source to right to repair.
Tech is the new Standard Oil.
This lawsuit is good but I'm not sure if is would really change much. Sony can just charge an amount almost as high as their own sales price to resellers which would make it impossible for them to offer lower prices than Sony.
