A former Sony exec made a claim in a recent interview about PlayStation that’s actually being disputed in court right now.
Gordon Thornton is a former SVP at PlayStation, who worked on growing PlayStation Store’s digital business. In an interview with Insider Gaming, he said this:
Regarding allegations of monopolization and price manipulation, PlayStation operates on a buy/sell model where the publisher acts as the supplier.
Because the recommended retail price is set directly by the publisher, Sony does not control these pricing structures, which counters claims of unilateral price fixing.
However, a recent class action lawsuit in California alleges otherwise. Agustin Caccari filed suit vs. Sony for disallowing Amazon, Gamestop, etc from selling PlayStation game codes.
His lawsuit filing includes this claim:
Sony also requires publishers who sell digital games on the PlayStation Store to relinquish full control over the retail price.
As a result, the policy swiftly and effectively foreclosed any and all price competition in the retail market for digital PlayStation games.
Of course, whether Mr. Thornton or Mr. Caccari is correct will now be up to the California courts to decide. But it’s clear that the spotlight is on Sony’s business practices after they decided to stop making physical games.
