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[Mr Moose]

Retail took a 20% cut and that made sense because they needed to have brick and mortar stores in every town. Digital stores rely on servers that do not require that many employees to maintain and servers are housed in regions instead of every city and suburb. I know Steam has a server in Chicago that I typically hit and its like 2 states away but sometimes i will get virginia which is like 800 miles away. Same speeds. You cant tell me that running servers costs more than running entire stores paying payroll taxes, insurance, state and city taxes and permits.

Both companies are running a scam. It should be making games cheaper since the money is going directly into their pockets. Either have the digital cut at 20% so that the publisher gets an extra 10% back or reduce the cost of every game by 10% so the consumer saves around $6-7.

https://www.shopto.net/en/sony-wallet-topup/

Buy cheaper PSN wallet top-ups, there's your 10% saving.

 

[Kataploom]

LOL business is business. Want to sell? Pay for the rights to be in there selling... Or you can go to any other physical or digital places (where taxes are the same)

 

[reinking]

But with Nintendo and MS that’s not true. Both of them allow other retailers to sell digital codes. Most stores have a wall of digital cards right next to their game cases. Sony banned the sell of codes a while ago so now the ONLY way to buy a digital PS game is through their store.

I sitll have to go through their digital storefront to enter the code. Is Nintendo and Microsoft offering a different commission incentive to developers and publishers if I use a digital card instead of currency?

 

[IDKFA]

Lol. What a waste of time.

Why just go after Sony when Microsoft and Nintendo charge the same amount?

Do they actually think that reducing this 30% cut will mean cheaper games? Loooooool.

 

[ManaByte]

Why just go after Sony when Microsoft and Nintendo charge the same amount?

Probably because you’re not limited to the Nintendo or MS store to buy digital games. You can get codes cheaper elsewhere.

 

[IDKFA]

Probably because you’re not limited to the Nintendo or MS store to buy digital games. You can get codes cheaper elsewhere.

Does the suit even mention this?

Alos can't you get PSN codes cheaper elsewhere?

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Does the suit even mention this?

Alos can't you get PSN codes cheaper elsewhere?

Not for games.

 

[reinking]

Probably because you’re not limited to the Nintendo or MS store to buy digital games. You can get codes cheaper elsewhere.

..and enter those codes in their storefront.

I am trying to find info if they charge developers and publishers less when purchasing the digital code per game vs digital code for currency. I hope Virtual Legality (Hoeg) takes a look. It would make this easier.

 

[ManaByte]

Alos can't you get PSN codes cheaper elsewhere?

Not for games. Sony banned that a while ago.

 

[LordCBH]

“Them charging the industry standard is a rip off!”

 

[AJUMP23]

What is the Retail percentage for a walmart or a gamestop when they sell a game?

 

[GHG]

Probably because you’re not limited to the Nintendo or MS store to buy digital games. You can get codes cheaper elsewhere.

Try again.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Probably because you’re not limited to the Nintendo or MS store to buy digital games. You can get codes cheaper elsewhere.

That has fuck all to do with this lmao

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Well, never stopped to think about it before, in a way, setting up your own sandbox and setting all the pricing and fees is sort of anti competitive, and if the law says it's not allowed there since 2015, maybe they have a real leg to stand on. If they do same applies of course to ms/apple/Nintendo.

Google, Facebook, epic (less, but still), PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, amazon, etc.

There are so many hidden taxes like this.

 

[clem84]

How can you sign a contract, and then sue. Even if the tax was twice as much, nobody forced them to sign that contract.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

You haven’t been able to buy PSN digital codes for games since 2019.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/sony-stops-selling-digital-game-codes-at-physical-retailers/

You still pay the 30% thing tho.

 

[GHG]

That has fuck all to do with this lmao

Please understand. When you Stan for a company because they need your help it's difficult to acknowledge the fact that the only reason they aren't targeted when it comes to things like this is because they aren't seen as significant enough.

 

[tmlDan]

I think it's idiotic that Playstation and Xbox also charge the top prices for digital games, it makes me question why anyone would get a digital only PS5 over a disk drive one, your completely trapped in purchasing games from the PS Store at these huge prices.

I have a job and get paid well, I also don't mind if I pay a little bit more - there are tons of sales on the PS store and sometimes cheaper than retail.

I don't trust second hand stores or used games.

 

[Mr Moose]

You haven’t been able to buy PSN digital codes for games since 2019.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/sony-stops-selling-digital-game-codes-at-physical-retailers/

But you can buy (cheaper) PSN digital wallet top-ups which you can then spend on whatever you want on the store.

 

[Fbh]

Lol this is going to get thrown out.
Sony can easily prove that it's the industry standard, and any sentence against a company charging whatever they want (for completely unessential products) on their closed ecosystem would have large ramifications not only for the gaming industry

Moreover the fact places like the Epic Store or proprietary storefronts like Origin/Battle.Net still charge full price is a good example that even if they lowered their cut consumers would probably see little to no improvement in game pricing.

 

[IDKFA]

Try again.

Okay.

What changes have the others made to their commission that Sony hasn't?

 

[Three]

You haven’t been able to buy PSN digital codes for games since 2019.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/sony-stops-selling-digital-game-codes-at-physical-retailers/

Because you are trying to come up with some silly unrelated reason to make others charging 30% seem exempt. The real reason MS sell those and Sony doesn't is because they sell mostly digital only consoles and want retailers to stock their console and sell codes instead of discs. They want shelf space/sales at retailers.

 

[GHG]

Okay.

What changes have the others made to their commission that Sony hasn't?

To my knowledge they haven't. It's a simple case of targeting the market leader and then hoping it results in sweeping changes if successful.

 

[reinking]

Okay.

What changes have the others made to their commission that Sony hasn't?

The key words are "other platforms." I am not sure how it relates to Nintendo but MS does not charge as much on their app store for PC.

 

[Calverz]

But none of that has anything to do with the 30% commission on digital stores.

 

[lovetalkgames]

Isn’t Sony a singular company which means it should say “Sony is being sued”?

 

[Lasha]

most retailers have a 30% mark up, doesn't matter if its digital or physical. people are forgetting things like gamesharing which comes into effect to. do we want cheaper games yes of coarse but the commission will always be the same.

30% makes sense for physical retail because of the costs involved. 30% for digital is robbery. The console maker's cut is especially egregious because the cost for the store and account system is paid for by XBL/PSN/NSO subscriptions.

 

[Evil Calvin]

Shouldn't digital games be cheaper because there is no 2nd or 3rd party? No shipping? No physical cost of goods?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Shouldn't digital games be cheaper because there is no 2nd or 3rd party? No shipping? No physical cost of goods?

In theory

In reality publishers just pocket the difference

 

[Calverz]

 

[DeepEnigma]

30% is a standard tax for any digital store. They going to sue them all?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

 

[DeepEnigma]

Yep. Anyone pretending lower commission rates mean games will be cheaper for consumers are kidding themselves. "Consumer rights champion"......my ass.

EGS supposedly charges less.

Games are the same price.

Shocker, I know!

 

[mitch1971]

These lawyers not seen the prices of gamepass and ps+premium?

 

[Topher]

 

[Stuart360]

Pretty crazy that some of you are trying to console war over something like this.

Anyway win or lose it wont make any difference to us consumers. Look at the Epic Shitstore, they only charge 12% yet the games are just as expensive as Steam, more so with the odd game.

 

[Topher]

EGS supposedly charges less.

Games are the same price.

Shocker, I know!

You mean I don't get an 18% discount on the EGS store?

 

[DeepEnigma]

You mean I don't get an 18% discount on the EGS store?

Some cunt(s) should sue!

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Retail took a 20% cut and that made sense because they needed to have brick and mortar stores in every town. Digital stores rely on servers that do not require that many employees to maintain and servers are housed in regions instead of every city and suburb. I know Steam has a server in Chicago that I typically hit and its like 2 states away but sometimes i will get virginia which is like 800 miles away. Same speeds. You cant tell me that running servers costs more than running entire stores paying payroll taxes, insurance, state and city taxes and permits.

Both companies are running a scam. It should be making games cheaper since the money is going directly into their pockets. Either have the digital cut at 20% so that the publisher gets an extra 10% back or reduce the cost of every game by 10% so the consumer saves around $6-7.

Yup.

People ripped GameStop for high prices. But they got a lot of costs to up keep. Even then they still lose money.

Digital store owners take a bigger cut than retail yet all they do is handle 5 cent digital downloads. No inventory costs, no stores, and whatever costs it takes to run server farms is going to be way cheaper than 1000s of stores with 10,000 employees.

Yet some reason you don’t hear about gamers grilling the 30% fees.

As crazy as it seems you probably got more people complaining about Epic’s 12% fee as if they actually want the online store to hoard more profits.

Weird.

 

[Calverz]

Let me make sure I hit the triggered emote on this reply.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Nintendo is next

 

[Clear]

Feels like a fishing expedition to me, an unusually ill-informed one at that.

As noted Sony's charge on product sold on their storefront is (1)industry-wide standard, (2) does not directly impact the price paid by end users*, and (3) is to the best of knowledge completely legal as a practice -the whole premise of being a merchant is that they turn a profit on the goods they buy/sell!


*Just proving this is a pretty steep burden of proof to overcome, because demonstrating that it affects the retail purchaser is going to require evidence that the same product is sold elsewhere at a lower price when Sony's merchanting fee is not in effect!

 

[nominedomine]

If 30% is illegal Jimbo is fine with raising it to 40%.

 

[Topher]

Let me make sure I hit the triggered emote on this reply.

 

[SlimySnake]

Yup.

People ripped GameStop for high prices. But they got a lot of costs to up keep. Even then they still lose money.

Digital store owners take a bigger cut than retail yet all they do is handle 5 cent digital downloads. No inventory costs, no stores, and whatever costs it takes to run server farms is going to be way cheaper than 1000s of stores with 10,000 employees.

Yet some reason you don’t hear about gamers grilling the 30% fees.

As crazy as it seems you probably got more people complaining about Epic’s 12% fee as if they actually want the online store to hoard more profits.

Weird.

It's because unlike retail stores like Bestbuy, Gamestop and Walmart, digital stores like Sony, Steam and Microsoft have fanboys defending their every move. I remember the whole Epic vs Steam fiasco a few years ago and couldnt recall why people were so animated over what was essentially a walmart vs target fight. Who cares about the method of deliver as long as you get to PLAY the game. But fanboyism has trained people to defend the indefensible.

 

[jaysius]

This is really weird, because people with too much money won't care about 30% but people with not enough money that might really care wouldn't have enough money to pay for all these legal fees.

 

[Leyasu]

Isn’t Sony a singular company which means it should say “Sony is being sued”?

I created the thread this morning after not much sleep. But you are 100% correct

Mod of War or any other mod, could you edit the title please?

 

[MasterCornholio]

 

[itsjustJEFF]

that would be quite the precedent to be set...

what a weird target. Of all the "bigger" publishers, I gotta believe that Playstation probably has the least amount of MTX or DLC. I don't get their argument, was MTX/DLC in COD more expensive on PS? Was the Overwatch skins cheaper on Xbox? I agree that digital pricing should come down, but they'd have a better case against like an EA or Blizzard. This honestly should be something that is brought on to the entirety of the gaming industry.