As reported by WCCFtech, the Dutch client group Stichting Massaschade & Consument now believes it has a fair stronger case in its €400 million ($457 million) lawsuit towards Sony over the 30% fee it costs on each sport offered by way of the PlayStation Store, a “Sony tax” that retail video games usually are not topic to—the identical retail video games Sony has introduced it’ll discontinue by 2028.
“The end of physical discs removes the last place where a PlayStation game could still be bought and sold at a competitive price,” SM&C chair Lucia Melcherts advised WCCFtech. “No discs means no second-hand market and no alternative to the PlayStation Store, so from 2028, Sony alone decides what a game costs and even how long you are allowed to use it.
“That is precisely the hurt our Fair PlayStation declare is about: a worth can by no means be truthful when the client is left with no possession and no various.”
It’s illustrative to match this case with Epic’s Apple Store challenges and the antitrust lawsuits faced by Steam—with one brought against it by another, different Dutch consumer group. Apple, which sells the hardware and maintains its own storefront—a system which closely maps to Sony’s—was ultimately forced to relinquish some of control of that ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Steam’s flat 30% take (sound familiar?) from everyone on the platform, be they EA or a bedroom programmer, is my least favorite part of my preferred storefront. But it doesn’t own our PCs the way a console manufacturer or Apple controls a non-jailbroken device. Indeed, you can install alternate operating systems, competing storefronts, and even physical PC games onto Steam Decks and Steam Machines.
Tweaktown reported PlayStation’s 2025 income as ¥4.69 trillion ($29 billion), however a $427 million lawsuit is not something to sneeze at, and the corporate is prone to face different challenges to its insurance policies across the PlayStation Store. Whether it is bodily discs or another concession to shoppers and watchdogs, as advocated by analyst Daniel Ahmad, one thing’s gotta give.