Sony has been caught doing something potentially illegally and ostensibly anti-consumer on PlayStation Store.
As reported by PS Prices, they “detected unusual offer structures containing experiment identifiers” on PlayStation Store.
In practice, what this meant is that Sony was offering different prices to different users for the same product. Many gamers checked and found differences that raised red flags.
For example, Detective Seeds confirmed that he and his son was offered different prices for games on their PSN accounts, while the share one PS5.
Umbra shared he got a bigger discount when he wasn’t signed into his account. ResetERA user SinnyIndonesian experienced the same thing.
The running theory is that Sony is attempting A/B testing. In other words, they’re attempting dynamic pricing to test what discounts gamers will accept before buying.
Sony did not respond to Polygon for a statement, and that silence is where this controversy lies. We don’t know if the price differences are based on reasonable factors such as regions or taxes.
US PSN users have apparently not been receiving these dynamic prices, raising speculation they are also testing where they can legally do this.
Ultimately, we’re waiting for Sony’s response.