Opinion: If Sony Loses Lawsuit in The Netherlands Their Customers Will Pay More For Games
As a company, Sony Entertainment has managed to put itself in a position to fully control its business vertical. In other words, Sony produces, publishes, and sells video games. They don’t have to rely on third-party entities for their products to reach their customers.
In fact, it’s not possible for any outside company to sell their products on the Sony platform. The obvious advantage of this monopoly is that Sony gets to decide their prices since there’s no competition. On the other hand, when prices are artificially hiked customers get upset.
Dutch consumer advocacy foundation Massaschade & Consument in the Netherlands have launched a class action lawsuit against the video games giant there, calling it Fair PlayStation, and they are informing players about how they can get in on the suit.
“We have previously started collective actions against Airbnb, TikTok and Google. Now we are taking on Sony, for the way in which it abuses its power in the market for the sale of digital games,” the foundation said on its website.
“In the EU, it is illegal for large companies to abuse their position to make more profit at the expense of consumers. Yet Sony does not fully comply with these rules.”
According to the foundation, Sony is artificially inflating prices for games bought online by some 47% compared to the physical copy of the very same game. But this isn’t new. Sony has already been sued in the US for the exact same thing: artificial price hiking.
In the US, they settled the lawsuit in December 2024 and paid $7.85 even though Sony denied any wrongdoing.
The timing of the lawsuit in the Netherlands is quite interesting as we’re in the middle of an ongoing discussion regarding the prices of video games in general. Video games have become increasingly more expensive over the years as gamers’ demand better graphics, great stories, intriguing characters, improved combat systems, voice actors, incredible soundtracks, and regular expansions.
Games like Genshin Impact have been rumored to cost more than $900 million to produce and market, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare combined for a total of $1.34 billion to create and advertise, and GTA 6 has been said to have a budget reaching a whopping $2 billion.
It’s easy to see that this organic growth based on player demand has led to more expensive games. And as long as gamers want bigger and better games, they will continue to get more expensive. We’re likely heading towards an impasse, however, as it’s not sustainable for any company to produce games that cost more than the potential earnings from selling them.
If Sony is found guilty of inflating their prices on purpose, then we’re looking at borderline nefarious business practices. Manufacturing a version of a gaming console that doesn’t have a disc drive and then charging extra for a portable drive, and then charging close to 50% more for online games, that’s pretty nefarious.
If Sony is found guilty of hiking prices for online games, then it’s pretty easy to see what will happen next. PlayStation games online will become cheaper, while physical versions of the same games will become more expensive.
At the end of the day, someone would have to make up for whatever Sony will be forced to pay to settle the lawsuit in the Netherlands, and ultimately it will be the company’s customers.