- Primary Subject: Sony PlayStation digital storefront monopoly and the role of physical games in maintaining price competition
- Key Idea: Why physical games matter less as “objects” and more as external price competition that prevents a fully controlled digital marketplace
- Status: Opinion
- Last Verified: August 11, 2026
- Quick Summary: The piece argues that Sony’s potential move toward an all-digital PlayStation ecosystem raises concerns about pricing power and market control, especially if physical games disappear.
Sony's all-digital PlayStation future has one rather pesky problem attached to it - if physical games disappear, so does retail competition.
Dutch consumer rights organization Stichting Massaschade & Consument (SM&C) has been building a case against Sony through its Fair PlayStation campaign, alleging that the company effectively holds a monopoly over digital PlayStation game sales.
Stop Killing Games and preservation resource DoesItPlay? have now backed the campaign, encouraging Dutch players to join the case and helping SM&C demonstrate that it represents actual consumers.
At the heart of the case is pricing, with SM&C arguing that PlayStation's walled-off digital marketplace leaves players without competing storefronts to keep game prices in check.
It claims Dutch consumers can pay up to 47% more and is seeking both compensation and greater competition in digital PlayStation sales.
That's an allegation rather than a legal conclusion, obviously, and whether SM&C can prove its case is something for the Dutch courts to decide.
But the timing makes the argument much more interesting. Sony is reportedly moving toward ending physical PlayStation game production in 2028, which could remove one of the only meaningful alternatives to buying directly through the PlayStation Store.
And that's where this stops being a squabble for people with shelves full of discs - I'm fine with PlayStation going digital, but going digital while keeping the shop this tightly locked down is another matter.
I've never loved framing this as physical versus digital - downloads are wonderfully convenient, but that's not the part of the arrangement that worries me.
I don't need to pretend I enjoy getting off the sofa, finding the correct case, and swapping discs every time I want to play something (I'm not that committed to preservation).
The download itself is hardly the problem - it's being funneled through one storefront when PC gaming shows just how much more flexible digital distribution can be.
PC has been overwhelmingly digital for years, yet I don't necessarily have to buy a game directly from one company controlling the entire platform.
Steam might dominate, but there is also GOG, the Epic Games Store, publisher storefronts, and authorized retailers selling legitimate keys. Those businesses can discount games independently and compete for my money.
PlayStation doesn't really offer an equivalent. If I want a digital PS5 game and don't like its current PlayStation Store price, I can wait for a sale or simply not buy it.
While physical games exist, though, I have another option. I can check Amazon, visit a retailer, find an older copy being cleared out somewhere, or buy the game second-hand.
SM&C puts that consequence rather neatly: "No discs means no second-hand market and no alternative to the PlayStation Store."
That's why I think discs matter even to people who haven't purchased one in years. They create an external market around software running on Sony's hardware. Physical prices aren't entirely controlled by a platform holder or publisher.
Retailers need to clear inventory, used copies enter circulation, and one shop can undercut another. A game that officially costs $70 can become a $40 product because somebody somewhere has decided they'd rather sell the thing than preserve its suggested retail price forever.
Digital storefronts don't have that same pressure. There isn't unwanted stock occupying warehouse space, and there isn't somebody's finished copy entering the market for half price.
A digital game's price changes when whoever controls its pricing decides it changes. The interesting part of SM&C's argument isn't whether every disc undercuts its digital counterpart - it's that physical games give PlayStation prices somewhere else to come from.
Physical games place another price in front of consumers. Remove them, and the PlayStation Store suddenly has considerably less to compete against.
Maybe SM&C succeeds in court, maybe it doesn't. Either way, the lawsuit is asking a question the industry will eventually have to answer.
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