Sony faces lawsuit over alleged “monopoly pricing” of PlayStation downloads

[khalbrae]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/...ion-downloads/

In Apple's opening statements in the Epic Games v. Apple trial on Monday, the company argued that "the law protects Apple's choice to have a closed system, just as it protects Sony and Nintendo." A new proposed class-action lawsuit against Sony's alleged monopoly control over the market for downloadable PlayStation games seems set to test that argument in the near future.

The lawsuit, filed in Northern California federal court (first reported on by Bloomberg News and obtained by Polygon), alleges that Sony's monopoly control over the PlayStation Store leads to "supracompetitive prices for digital PlayStation games, which are... [priced] significantly higher than they would be in a competitive retail market for digital games."

No more retail code competition
Microsoft and Nintendo also maintain digital storefronts that provide the only legitimate way to download software on the Xbox and Switch platforms, of course. But the lawsuit says the PlayStation Store differs from its console competition for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, in 2019, Sony became the only console maker to stop allowing the sale of digital game codes through brick-and-mortar and online retailers. In doing so, the suit alleges, Sony "specifically intended to and did eliminate price competition from other digital video game retailers," limiting players to "a single source for purchasing any digital PlayStation content" and forcing those players "to pay a higher price for digital PlayStation games than they would in a free and unrestrained competitive retail market."
The suit suggests that "where download codes are available from outside retailers, the retailers compete amongst themselves and with the in-console stores to offer the best price." That seems somewhat true in other console markets; as of this writing, digital codes for games like Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are selling for $39.99 on Amazon, less than the $59.99 price for a direct purchase through the Nintendo Online Store.