PlayStation owners from the United Kingdom could be in for a financial boost following the announcement of a lawsuit, as a £5,000,000,000 lawsuit has been levied against Sony that could give over 8,000,000 gamers up to £500 if successful.
One of the biggest shifts in gaming over the past 15 years is the transition from a physical marketplace to a digital one, which has been pushed by companies like Valve on PC, alongside Sony and Microsoft on their respective consoles' storefronts.
While this has had negative ramifications on some of the biggest brick and mortar games stores - which partially led to the infamous GameStop short squeeze saga in 2021 - the companies themselves have benefitted significantly by cutting out the middle man.
PlayStation and Xbox are now able to sell to consumers directly through their own closed-off storefronts, and this also allows publishers to save cash on production and distribution.
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One particular claim, under the banner of PlayStation You Owe Us, aims to challenge what they distinguish as a monopoly for UK consumers, and have landed Sony with a £5 billion lawsuit in order to adequately compensate over 8 million gamers that have, in the eyes of the claim, been overcharged.
Led by 'consumer champion' Alex Neill, The PlayStation Claim argues that Sony has had a "near monopoly on the sale of digital games and add-on content through its control of the PlayStation Store."
On top of this, they indicate that "Sony uses this dominance to enforce strict terms and conditions on game developers and publishers," affecting individuals on both sides of the industry.
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As a result, prices set on the PlayStation Store have been deemed to be "excessive and unfair," and the claim in turn is seeking compensation for this, as reported by Runcorn & Widnes World.
If you happened to own a PlayStation console between the dates of August 19, 2016 and August 19, 2022 then you are eligible to receive money if the claim is successful, and it's indicated that payouts could range between £67 and £562.
You might unfortunately be waiting quite a while though, as if Sony doesn't decide to settle the case, it's set to go to trial on March 2, 2026, and is expected to last around eight weeks.
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Thankfully you don't need to do anything else in order to qualify for compensation as anyone eligible will automatically be included in the claim, and will be notified once the case has been resolved.
Many are feeling the effect's of PlayStation's alleged monopoly on the store in recent days too, after a lengthy PSN outage that left everyone unable to play most of their games.
This, combined with outrage surrounding the 'pathetic' reimbursement of just five additional days added to active PlayStation Plus subscriptions, has left patience waning in the gaming world.