Sony's $7.9 billion dollar failure.

That's right Sony has failed to kill off the $7.9 billion dollar lawsuit where they are going to court over allegations of ripping off UK gamers by its store policies & procedures.

If you're a UK PS gamer, you could be in for some cash in the Sony sweepstakes lol.

On a serious note, I hope Sony lose here as you should be able to buy games be it digitally or physically at as many places as possible as that helps consumers find the best price due to competition.

Sony has no money to buy developers but apparently they have 8 billion from ripping off consumers.

Well deserved. PlayStation has been rewarding their fans for their success this gen by bending them over the table, grabbing their hair and slapping them around.

Sony fans should be celebrating this as much as they celebrate Sony for this region 😂

We also know the UK are tireless defenders of video game consumers who in the mind of many Sony fans, righteously shot Microsoft down for Act/Bliz acquisition. In this case I'm fairly certain I can speak for all Sony fans when I say we are rooting for the UK courts to thoroughly investigate and punish sonys anti consumer policies! 🏃🏼💨 🚓🚓🚓

I'm sure we will see cows enter this thread and support the fellow PS console and game customers they count in sales threads.

Not a chance..the sales and profits saps are like 🐄Avoid🚫

Cows on suicide watch. lol :P

Oh, I thought they are bought Bethesda and Todd Howard from MS.

Bad news for Sony, initiate thread avoidance 😂

@SecretPolice said:

Cows on suicide watch. lol :P

Classic..lmao

@pc_rocks: They probably thought they did to.🤷‍♂️

2023 has been a dog pile of bad news for Sony. Such a stark constant from recent years.

So much turmoil going on over there in Sonyland these days. Yikes!

Cows can't catch a break.

😂

I was surprised that this lawsuit was allowed to continue, tbh.

Will go nowhere.

Truth be told I am happy to see any corporation lose a lawsuit, so I will celebrate this.

Power to the people!

We can't celebrate this. That other corporate monster consumed a publisher.

This is happening in the UK not US, so it has every chance of going either way.

Definitely wanna to read up about it. Hard to say, some people online make it sound like Sony was forcing devs to adopt certain MSRP prices. Come to think of it, I've heard Nintendo has done same thing in past but often wonder if there was a higher cost to publish incurring due to the card format.

Prior to such practices I was always under assumption the publishers set the MSRP but on console markets had less flexibility with temperary sales prices. Seems every console company does this. I would assume this is in support of other publishers, since initial sales momentum is critical in its long term commercial performance, it should be monitored/controlled somewhat the temperary sales as to not interfere with new releases and their initial sales momentum. Otherwise, publishers suffer, and they may not want to release games on platforms that don't protect their interest on that end. All console platforms seem to exercise this practice, regarding temperature sales at least.

If Sony is forcing though publishers and their MSRP, that'd be news to me. And certainly worth looking further into.

Given a lawsuit is moving forward, the parties will have powers to subpeona information, and conduct depositions. So, there could be a lot to learn here depending on how well they act on that opportunity.

I'd be curious myself whether on some end Sony wanted to undermine Microsoft's Smart Delivery feature through parity clauses. Forcing last gen and current gen games to be sold as separate titles and not as one item with gen awareness.

There was that other case about third party digital store prices and inability of third parties to sell redeem codes. Honestly not sure what to make of it, as not sure North American practices are same as European market practices for various reasons. Here it seems all third party vendors do is act as a portal to the digital stores to get redeem codes for same price on can get them on the console digital stores, and never did I see retailers offer digital redeem codes for less than the console digital stores. Not sure how it was done in Europe so we'll see how that goes. Frankly I think champions for that lawsuit are those pro-piracy anarcho-capitalist types that want console market to look like that legally questionable grey market of game keys.

Anybody got the short and sweet of this though please break it down.

@dabear: If it were in America where companies can buy their way out I wouldn't be surprised either, but this is the UK and as you saw with the MS Craptivision buyout they really look into things and aren't afraid to go into bat for consumers.

We need to remember that it is up to the trial judge to decide whether a lawsuit has merit and goes to trial or has no merit and is dismissed. Anyways, we will see whether this lawsuit goes to trial, dismissed, or that the parties settled out of court.

@lamprey263: this is about the 30% cut that sony takes on each game sold and how other people can't have stores on the PlayStation. If Sony loses all consoles will be affected.

I think the bigger problem is the fact that Sony is using their dominant position to force developers to sign up to whatever terms Sony wants, as the fact that Sony does not allow 3rd-party sites to sell games, add-ons, subscriptions, etc, those two things IMO should be the main focus of this lawsuit. Sony needs to start allowing other retailers to carry their digital game codes again as they stopped doing that a few years ago. That seems like the workaround to this lawsuit issue.

The reason why Sony was named specifically and not MS or Nintendo is because both of them sell digital game codes to 3rd-parties such as Humble Bundle sells digital Nintendo Switch and Xbox games. PlayStation is the only one that doesn't allow for that which is why this lawsuit is still ongoing.

Absolutely stupid lawsuit that everyone knows is already dead. You can shop online.. which is exactly what SONY will say.

I briefly had a ps5 for 2 months or so, and shared one with my bro for another 8 months. In that time I can confidently say, they ripped off customers badly, especially in their digital store where they would often have higher prices than for their freaking physical discs. I mean black friday type discounts and sales on physical games but full price for their digital games. Aside from the garbage games on the ps5, their shitty subscription service, the final straw for me was the price difference between digital/physical. I sold the ps5 and never looked back.

The only thing I like about the ps5 was the dual sense controller, but it wasn't worth putting up with sonys bs.

It's not stupid, maybe read up on what's actually at play here. Sony are the only ones allowing the sale of digital games on its platform only, and thus has created a digital monopoly, which is anti-consumer.

#Sonytoo thread complete with the lem sympathizer mods in an attempt to deflect from the absolute pathetic performance of Xbox in Europe. Predictable as ever

I assume you're American, as digital games being priced higher than physical games has been a normal occurrence in my country for many, many years dating back to the 360 era. The issue here is that Sony are the only ones to sell digital games, you can't buy codes from retailers for a discount etc, which is creating a monopoly.

That's the reason I buy most of my 3rd party digital games on Xbox. Sony don't sell digital game retail codes anywhere in UK.

I think the reasoning behind the higher prices on the digital store was to help protect the brick-and-mortar stores. The only problem is if there is no choice to purchase the game elsewhere. There is a part of being being an adult where you have to make a choice as to where you are purchasing the game - and for your children.

I just want to make sure the UK courts take their time to determine the rights of gamers are upheld and that no cooperate greed present at Sony is taking advantage of gamers around the world.... You feel differently?

#Sonytoo made me 😂 love it!

You all have this poor lad feeling victimize all because he is shilling so hard for Sony that any criticism or support for consumers is an attack on his/her person.🤣

This lawsuit is to benefit you cows, and to stop Sony's digital monopoly. You of all people should be all for this like you cheered on the UK against the MS Craptivision buyout.

You're supposed to be against monopolies remember?

And here, I thought Sony fans want to save money if this lawsuit doesn't follow through? If it does take into effect (and we know it will) you'll see Sony passing out digital codes to 3rd-party markets to allow gamers paying half price while shopping somewhere else. Why pay $70 when I can find better half price deals elsewhere.

(Also, PC gamers have it made and no, not because of piracy, because I can pay half prices on new games)

@davillain: Cows don't seem to understand that Sony has created a digital monopoly.

The reason for that is because they are too busy following what MS are doing (the recent rewards app thread for instance) to keep a track on what Sony is doing.

I'm trying to inform them, but as you can see there's not a cow in sight 🤷‍♂️

Digital monopoly lmao. Per usual the most persecuted Xbox Fannies piping up trying to frame this as some sort of huge deal.

I buy my games either physical, or I wait for a discount on the PS online store. Wow such outrage, what a monopoly!

I guess the concept of a monopoly only applies to other companies but not Sony. You know why? Because you are a shill. $100 poorer shill.😂

Did you not know that Sony won't allow for digital games to be sold anywhere else except for its marketplace, thus a digital monopoly.

Use your brain randy because the way gaming is going digital is going to make physical almost obsolete and we need to hold these arsehole corporations (be it Sony/MS/Nintendo) accountable for trying to give its customers less options in the way we game.

We don't need a PC situation where physical games are no longer a thing and thus being less consumer friendly.

Are you capable of not licking Sony's boots at all?

@last_lap: If in a future where there are no longer physical copies, but only digital copies, what would the corporations will think of next? They may think of some kind of excuse and want all their games streamed so gamers will no longer own a digital copy.

We should not fall into this slippery slope and not surrender our rights just out of convenience or security. This applies not only to gaming, but also other aspects of our lives.

Hey, I agree with you, I mostly buy physical games, I decided that I wouldn't buy Alan Wake 2 because it was digital only. Problem is not many people have the ability to stick to their principals when no other option is available.

If we give up that option we lose the ability of the consumer to get value for money. These corporations would love for everybody to be renting their games, and eventually just having an app on your tv you log into to play games. 100% profit with shit all effort.

Let's face it though, gamers for the most part are stupid and just eat up what these companies do.

@onesiphorus: The next legal step for digital games is users being able to transfer the license. It has not been challenged but if push through the courts due to resistance from MS,Sony,Nintendo etc, they will lose.

@last_lap: How is that different than any other inclusive service? Where else should the digital distribution of their games be available? Are we thinking we should be able to go to a store and buy a code or something? I mean... it's the same thing. Why would one need multiple options to buy digitally? Would it be all that much better to buy codes off of other services like Amazon? SONY probably doesn't want to go down that route because they don't want their products devalued by keys being sold in bulk during sales and then places like Humble and Fanatic would pop up for them as well.. Maybe I'm just missing something here. Seems like trying to make a mountain of a mole hill to me and any company with any sense doesn't purposely devalue themselves.

Multiple stores for purchasing games encourages competition. Your argument is akin to "Why should Best Buy or Target sell the same things as Walmart? Why would one need multiple stores to buy the same item?"

Hey, man. Thanks again so much. We've been selling our Playstations because of you. We appreciate your tireless work and being the best consumer watchdog for the Sony brand. If there were only more people like you, Xbox would probably be in third place right now instead of fourth 🤣

More options means better value for the customer, only one forces you to pay whatever they want to charge and thus creates a monopoly.

We're (unfortunately) going down a digital road and the likes of Sony/MS/Nintendo will be able to control pricing for their entire platform, therein lies the problem, see unlike PC where it's a lawless land and anyone (with the $$$ can create a digital storefront) Sony/MS/Nintendo will not allow any other digital store to sell their games.

Imagine going to buy some groceries and there's only 1 supermarket, going to put fuel in your car and there's only 1 service station, going to buy a car and there's only 1 car dealer, I think (and hope) you get where this is going.

Cowisms trying to be masked by sarcasm I see.

Do you want Sony/MS/Nintendo controlling ALL games by themselves on their platforms? that's a simple question, let's see if you can answer.

It is also about Sony not allowing stores to sell digital game codes anymore. Forcing digitals sales to be made on the PS Store itself. This along with taking 30% from developers and forcing them to sell at a higher price.

The thing I see them losing is their ability to not allow stores to sell digital codes. The 30% is pretty much standard practice from what I can tell.

I am unaware of it being about not allowing competing stores on the PS itself.