Sony is now facing a lawsuit alleging that it illegally restricts purchases of PlayStation games to its own Playstation store, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The class-action lawsuit against Sony, filed by consumers, cites how Sony Interactive Entertainment confines digital purchases to the PlayStation store, and in doing so, are able to dictate the price of games, sometimes up to 175% more than game prices offered by other retailers both online and in-store. Considering the new generation of consoles has raised the price tag of modern games like Returnal to around $70, pricing in video games is a serious concern.
Sony Keeping Stranglehold Over Prices, Sale of PlayStation Games?
Finding the best price for games is just common sense for the consumer, but Sony’s restrictions make finding a lower price, independent of limited-time sales, challenging for those who buy digitally.
As stated in the lawsuit, “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.”
Sony halted the sale of digital download codes for PlayStation games through third party vendors like Amazon back in 2019. While Sony allows vendors to sell PSN credit, this still forces consumers to pay the price defined by the PlayStation store.
Sony’s current legal episode is coming in the midst of the ongoing Epic vs. Apple trial, which has been generating drama across the video game news landscape.
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