Sony Facing Lawsuit Over PlayStation Store Digital Sales Exclusivity

Sony is facing a lawsuit that claims it is operating an unlawful monopoly by restricting purchases of PlayStation games to the PlayStation Store. As detailed by a Bloomberg report, the class-action lawsuit, filed by consumers, notes that by restricting digital purchases to the official PlayStation Store, Sony Interactive Entertainment are able to charge up to 175% higher than physical games sold by retailers both online and in-store. With modern games like Returnal commanding $70, you can see why people are trying to find the best deals on their games. Those who want to remain digital, however, are restricted to what Sony charges on the PlayStation Store. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/29/returnal-review"] “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,” explains the lawsuit. Sony stopped allowing third party retailers, such as Amazon, from selling digital download codes for PlayStation games back in 2019. Nintendo has also done a similar thing, suspending European retailers from selling first-party digital game codes. While Sony brought an end to digital download codes being sold by other retailers, those companies are allowed to sell PSN credit. However, this still requires a user to pay Sony’s asking price for a game, rather than being able to pay the often cheaper prices retailers offer for disc-based versions of the same game. While Sony may be facing legal action, it’s not the big case of the moment. That’s the Epic Games vs Apple lawsuit, which is currently ongoing, and spilling games industry secrets all over the internet. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.