Sony to face £6 billion UK lawsuit for allegedly overcharging PlayStation customers

[Stevieboy]

14 minutes ago, ObsiEez said:

Really hope it goes through. The fact digital is becoming more expensive than physical is asinine. For example here in Canada, Dead Island 2 is $98 on the PSN Store, but it's $90 to buy it physically off Amazon or any other physical game store. There are other examples of this, like Final Fantasy 16 being $3 more, Persona 3 Reload pre-order being $3 more, & probably some others that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

Digital should ALWAYS be cheaper because not only do they not have to produce actual physical versions of the game, but once you buy it, you're stuck with it because of Sony's terrible refund policy. I doubt the lawsuit will actually go anywhere, but I'm praying it does

 

You're missing the key fact that digital is always, unless on sale, priced at whatever the RRP is. Places selling the physical version choose not to sell it at RRP, and instead to sell it a bit lower, to get your business. Sony could choose to do the same for the digital version, but they choose to sell it at RRP. It's not Sony's fault that other places choose to sell it lower than RRP, so they shouldn't be forced to lower their prices for that reason.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Stevieboy

[Virtua_Vince]

*

Edited November 24, 2023 by Virtua_Vince

[ObsiEez]

2 minutes ago, Stevieboy said:

 

You're missing the key fact that digital is always, unless on sale, priced at whatever the RRP is. Places selling the physical version choose not to sell it at RRP, and instead to sell it a bit lower, to get your business. Sony could choose to do the same for the digital version, but they choose to sell it at RRP. It's not Sony's fault that other places choose to sell it lower than RRP, so they shouldn't be forced to lower their prices for that reason.

Which would be a fine point to bring up, if not for the fact the RRP in Canada IS $90 for games. Some games are being sold for over the RRP, some aren't.

[JoniP]

Seems similar to the one Epic lost with Apple.

[FawltyPowers]

3 hours ago, TJ_Solo said:

 

That's the free market at work. Depending on the day, sale, and store you can find better deals at any given time. 

 

Sounds more like the logical fallacy of assuming that digital should always be cheaper than physical. You list all these factors that go into the cost of phyical games but ignore and don't list the basic stuff costs of hosting data online. 

 

You're probably right, I've no idea on the cost of hosting the data, I assumed it would cost a lot less than manufacturing and distributing physical copies. If that is true and digital is so expensive then I'm glad I buy physical when possible as it's far better value for money.

[MidnightDragon]

This will take forever since there’s going to be appeals most likely. 

[OmegaRejectz]

2 hours ago, PalaceOfLove706 said:

If Sony lowered their cut, the game publishers for the most part would just pocket the money. Look at the Epic Games Store. Publishers get 88% and EA Sports FC isn’t any cheaper as an example. 

1) you chose one of the largest publishers in all of gaming.

Why didn't you choose small studios that self-publish or A or AA publishers? y'know, the companies that struggle to pay for the development costs unlike EA or ATVI who rake in billions and then give their CEOs uncomprehensible bonuses

2) Who said it'd lead to lower games? If they feel $xx.xx is justified for their game, then a random company (Epic, Sony, Valve, etc) taking a cut should mean games stay the same as they're just getting closer to their ideal profit.

2 hours ago, Ashande said:

maintain the servers, bandwidth, etc…

and... how much does that cost? Because you're trying to make it seem like it costs just as much as physical media. ... which it doesn't.

Sony and other companies wouldn't be going the route of licensing out media if it was less profitable than sticking to physical.

[polar_bst]

1 hour ago, JoniP said:

Seems similar to the one Epic lost with Apple.

LOL this is actually the best example

[TJ_Solo]

9 hours ago, Jeanolt said:

You can sell physical games, that alone make them more valuable than digital.

 

This is irrelavent to anything I've said.

 

 

Quote

last I checked the amount that middlemen charge directly affects the cost of the product.

 

Where? For what product in gaming? It hasn't happened on Epic. Their lower royalty fee is going back to the publisher.  No savings being passed on to gamers or consumers.  So the publishers are making more money, retailer is making less, and consumers are spending the same. 

 

The middleman charge changing hasn't affected the price of the product for consumers in practice, in what we see currently happening. Maybe that classroom theory will be real world practice when business folk play strictly by the school books. Until then, things are different and aren't as clear cut.

 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by TJ_Solo

[fenrir54565]

This whole thing just sounds like a lawyer trying to get a big payout for themself for anyone interested here's her reddit AMA where she gets roasted.

it looks like steam is going through something similar.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/gabe-newell-ordered-to-make-in-person-deposition-for-valve-v-wolfire-games-lawsuit

[Mr_Fluffy_Pants_]

15 hours ago, MrShovelware said:

I'm so happy to see this going ahead. 

Hopefully this will force them to allow refunds like every other digital store on earth. 

link:

Sony to face £6 billion UK lawsuit for allegedly overcharging PlayStation customers (yahoo.com)

Don’t know where you got that info from, but I got a refund on the last time I renewed my Ps plus, was easy just asked ps support and there ya go.

[PalaceOfLove706]

10 hours ago, OmegaRejectz said:

1) you chose one of the largest publishers in all of gaming.

Why didn't you choose small studios that self-publish or A or AA publishers? y'know, the companies that struggle to pay for the development costs unlike EA or ATVI who rake in billions and then give their CEOs uncomprehensible bonuses

2) Who said it'd lead to lower games? If they feel $xx.xx is justified for their game, then a random company (Epic, Sony, Valve, etc) taking a cut should mean games stay the same as they're just getting closer to their ideal profit.

and... how much does that cost? Because you're trying to make it seem like it costs just as much as physical media. ... which it doesn't.

Sony and other companies wouldn't be going the route of licensing out media if it was less profitable than sticking to physical.

I was simply making an example. Sure some publishers would lower the price of their games. Most wouldn’t and keep the extra money. 
 

You’re also not factoring the fact digital media costs a lot more to maintain. The PS3 digital store has been online for 17 years. Do you think this is free for Sony to maintain? Game publishers aren’t producing ps3 physical media but can still earn money from digital. Would you prefer Sony lower their cut and then, say, close their last gen digital storefront right after a new console launches because it doesn’t make financial sense to maintain?

[OmegaRejectz]

1 hour ago, PalaceOfLove706 said:

I was simply making an example. Sure some publishers would lower the price of their games. Most wouldn’t and keep the extra money. 
 

You’re also not factoring the fact digital media costs a lot more to maintain. The PS3 digital store has been online for 17 years. Do you think this is free for Sony to maintain? Game publishers aren’t producing ps3 physical media but can still earn money from digital. Would you prefer Sony lower their cut and then, say, close their last gen digital storefront right after a new console launches because it doesn’t make financial sense to maintain?

I think you're way over estimating how much their storefront costs in upkeep.

[PalaceOfLove706]

1 hour ago, OmegaRejectz said:

I think you're way over estimating how much their storefront costs in upkeep.

There’s obviously enough of a cost that Nintendo closed their Wii U digital store after only 8 years. 
 

Digital is a lot more attractive to game publishers than physical discs. Would you rather give your manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and console maker a cut where you might have sales for a year or two if you have a popular game. Or just give the console maker a cut digitally and have the potential for 20 years of sales in the case of Sony. 

[Slava]

Quote

which was first filed in August 2022

 

Yep, I knew this case sounded familiar. So it's still going, huh. I see people are saying that nothing is going to come out of this, and I share the same sentiment.

 

If there's anything worth fighting the storefront holders currently, I'd say it's Steam's decision to leave the regional prices in Turkey and Argentina behind. Some of the price hikes this resulted in are unheard of, 4000% or something like that. Not that I see a potential win here either.

[giantturnip]

16 hours ago, ObsiEez said:

Really hope it goes through. The fact digital is becoming more expensive than physical is asinine. For example here in Canada, Dead Island 2 is $98 on the PSN Store, but it's $90 to buy it physically off Amazon or any other physical game store. There are other examples of this, like Final Fantasy 16 being $3 more, Persona 3 Reload pre-order being $3 more, & probably some others that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

 

I understand this price part. In Australia Final Fantasy XVI was $115 Australian on release day. I got it $25 cheaper from a retail store. One of the main reasons I often get physical games is they are generally cheaper in Australia.

[Deadvember]

Nothing will happen, nothing stopping people developing games on other platforms/their own websites. And other platforms take the same split.
Dudes just going to drown in legal expenses, just like the idiot sueing steam for the same reason.

Almost every business in the world takes a 30% split when it comes to selling things. It's not often companies do less than 30/70. Epic take less than 30% but they've not made a profit on their store since launch, so it's not a very wise thing to do. 

The dude will 100% lose, developers/consumers have a choice. Nobody has to own a playstation or buy digital games. And devs have loads of options with where they host their games.

He'd have a better chance winning agaist gas/oil/electric companies who jack the price up where people generally don't have any options of choice.

[Tomba25]

Shheeesh i thought  the lawsuit was for jacking up the PS plus  and still giving us garbage games  😫

[Lord_Raiden]

On 11/19/2023 at 10:47 AM, JoJoBelfast said:

Damn I though it was the telltale games from PS3 gen getting a collection and plat

 

17 hours ago, ObsiEez said:

Really hope it goes through. The fact digital is becoming more expensive than physical is asinine. For example here in Canada, Dead Island 2 is $98 on the PSN Store, but it's $90 to buy it physically off Amazon or any other physical game store. There are other examples of this, like Final Fantasy 16 being $3 more, Persona 3 Reload pre-order being $3 more, & probably some others that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

Digital should ALWAYS be cheaper because not only do they not have to produce actual physical versions of the game, but once you buy it, you're stuck with it because of Sony's terrible refund policy. I doubt the lawsuit will actually go anywhere, but I'm praying it does