Sony Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over High Digital Game Prices: Group Alleges ‘Sony Tax’ Causes Digital Games to Cost 47% More Than Discs

Alright, so here’s the thing. Dutch PlayStation fans, they’ve just about had it. They’re peeved about this ‘Sony tax’ nonsense, and now they’ve banded together in some legal showdown with Sony. The gist? They’re roping in the big guns, accusing Sony of playing monopoly with digital games. These folks are like, “Hold up, why are we coughing up 47% more for digital games than the discs?” (I mean, what’s next, a tax on air?).

So, Dutch folks did some digging (or snooping, whatever you wanna call it) and figured Sony’s been lording over the console market for, get this, a decade! And with lockdown on other app stores, it’s like they’ve got us in a headlock. They’ve done the math—yeah, the type that gives me a headache—and say 1.7 million PlayStation users in the Netherlands are feeling the pinch. That’s a cool €435 million (€505 million across the pond, if you’re counting dollars) they’ve forked out since 2013. I mean, just let that sink in.

And listen, no matter where you’re reading this from, PlayStation 5 games aren’t exactly budget-friendly. They usually hit you for about $69.99 in the U.S. And Sony’s got this digital stranglehold on pricing while physical game sellers are out there practically playing limbo with prices. But digital-only consoles are kinda nudging them out. Uh-oh.

Lucia Melcherts, she’s heading this ‘Fair PlayStation’ crusade, basically says gamers are tossing wads of cash at Sony and getting little more than, what, dust in return? Apparently, it’s like this frog-in-a-pot scenario—Sony keeps cranking up the heat. Just this April, their prices hopped up, like, surprise!

This gutsy move by Sony, though, it’s like a sneak peek into 2025’s monopoly power trip. Melcherts rants about this ‘Sony tax’, asserting the company’s been taking too much liberty—making choices without sweating what everyone else thinks. Fun times.

To sum it all up? Fair PlayStation’s gunning at Sony, saying they’re doubling profits, monopolizing 80% of the Dutch market, and slapping these walls around their own store. And let’s not even talk about developers. Poor devs, right?

So, what’s the deal now? Well, they’ve got a courtroom date lined up for 2025. The hopeful optimists from the consumer group are banking on the Dutch courts to put the squeeze on Sony and maybe, just maybe, open up the digital sales playground for other players.

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