Sony has recently been pushed to the forefront again due to “digitalization” issues. The well-known game consumer rights movement Stop Killing Games announced that it has joined a legal action against Sony in the Netherlands, supporting the “Fair PlayStation” lawsuit initiated by the local consumer organization Stichting Massaschade & Consument (SM&C), which targets the PlayStation digital game sales model.
Why are players suing Sony?
SM&C believes that PlayStation digital games can basically only be purchased through Sony’s own PlayStation Store, and Sony therefore has a dominant position in digital game sales. And with Sony announcing that it will stop producing physical discs for new games from January 2028, consumers may lose even the alternative options of the physical market and the second-hand market in the future. SM&C even claimed that the price of PlayStation digital games may be up to 47% more expensive on average compared to the physical market, calling this situation the “Sony tax.”
Stop Killing Games also stood up this time
Stop Killing Games’ main focus in the past was the problem of game suspension, hoping that manufacturers would still allow players to continue playing after stopping operations, such as adding offline mode or private server functions. Now they have begun to expand their battle to digital game consumer rights, and together with the game preservation community DoesItPlay? support this Dutch lawsuit. The organizers stated that they will fully support SM&C’s case and hope that the support of global players will prove that this is not just the appeal of a few people.
The physical disc is gone, how can players bargain for it?
The real issue in this lawsuit is not “whether players like CDs or not.” Physical games can at least create competition among retailers, second-hand transactions and price competition across different channels. But if all new PlayStation games are released digitally in the future, the main channel for players to purchase games will increasingly be concentrated in Sony’s own stores. That means the discs are gone, the second-hand market is gone, and the price competition in brick-and-mortar stores is gone, which is what groups like Stop Killing Games are worried about.