Sony Under Investigation Over Potential Market Abuse

There’s been an awful lot of attention over Microsoft as the company sought the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That acquisition is still very much an effort Microsoft is gunning for. But while they work through the appeals against the CMA to get this deal back in front of the regulators, Sony is now under the spotlight. But unlike Microsoft, their spotlight isn’t about acquiring a company. Instead, the Romanian Competition Council has sought out an investigation over Sony’s current restrictions regarding game codes.

Thanks to a report from Gamerant, we’re finding out about the new antitrust probe. If you recall, it wasn’t too long ago that Sony opted to refrain from other distributors from selling individual game codes. Instead, these distributors could sell cards to add currency to your PlayStation account or redeem PlayStation Plus. But those individual digital game codes that you use to be able to purchase were restricted. Now only Sony is allowing these games to be purchased directly through the PlayStation Store.

That is something we’ve seen plenty of negative feedback before from consumers. But now, a new case was opened up by the Romanian Competition Council as they investigated a possible infringement of the competition rules. In the eyes of the council, they believe these practices Sony is handling right now could reduce the purchasing options for PlayStation-compatible video games. This would also result in higher prices for video games on the console, along with discouraging Romanian studios from developing video games for the PlayStation console.

Currently, this is just an investigation right now, but it would be interesting to see what comes of this. After all, I’m sure that this would be favorable for consumers as it could mean acquiring games at a slight discount from various third-party retail distributors. At any rate, it could be a good while before more details emerge from this case. With Sony PlayStation consoles being the more sought-after platform with Romanian gamers and over a hundred different video game development studios, we’ll have to keep a close eye on if this gains traction or if other regulators get behind this antitrust probe.

Meanwhile, as mentioned, Microsoft is also working with its own regulator woes. Recently, they appealed the CMA decision over their acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Although new details have since emerged online that suggest the initial ruling from the CMA could have had a conflict of interest.