Once a champion for physical media, Sony is now telling PlayStation customers they don’t actually own the digital video games they paid $70 for

Just because PlayStation customers “purchased” video games on the console doesn’t mean they actually own the games, or so says the gaming console’s parent company Sony.

The Japan-based electronics, movie and gaming giant is facing a class action lawsuit filed in California’s Northern District Court in June, in which four customers allege that the technology giant did not properly disclose that paying for a downloadable game does not grant permanent ownership or access to it. The lawsuit claims Sony’s disclosures violate a 2024 California law AB 2426 that requires a warning that ‘states in plain language that ‘buying’ or ‘purchasing’ the digital good is a license.”

Two of the plaintiffs bought Resident Evil Requiem, per the motion to dismiss. Sony argued that because two of them purchased the same game just 11 days apart, that means no reasonable consumer can assume they owned exclusive rights to a digital copy, given how anyone could buy the same “copy” at any given time.The company’s filing states it’s simply “not plausible” that customers believed they owned the games outright.

In the motion to dismiss, Sony argued it made it clear in its terms of service and end user license agreement that its digital games are purchased, not owned. 

“A reasonable user would have seen the terms of service above or directly below the action button, the user unambiguously manifested assent to the........

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