Sony is fighting a class action lawsuit in California's Northern District Court arguing that customers who pay for downloadable PlayStation games never actually own them. Four plaintiffs filed the suit in June, alleging Sony failed to properly disclose that a digital 'purchase' grants only a license, not permanent ownership or access.
The lawsuit claims Sony's disclosures violate California's AB 2426, a 2024 law requiring companies to state 'in plain language' that buying a digital good is really a license. Two of the plaintiffs bought the same title, Resident Evil Requiem, 11 days apart. Sony's motion to dismiss seized on that detail, arguing it is 'not plausible' that a reasonable consumer would believe they owned exclusive rights to a copy anyone else could buy at the same time.
Sony's filing leans on its terms of service and end-user license agreement, stating a 'reasonable user would have seen the terms of service above or directly below the action button' and 'unambiguously manifested assent' to them, including a binding arbitration clause.
Sony is not alone. GameStop customer Jake Weber sued the retailer in January under the same California law, citing a Pokémon Legends: Arceus store page that omitted any mention of a license. That case is ongoing. Valve's Steam marketplace has taken a different approach, adding a cart-page warning that a purchase is a revocable license.
The stakes for consumers are rising. Sony announced in July it will stop producing physical PlayStation discs in January 2028 for new titles that can run $70 apiece. Rockstar Games confirmed in June that Grand Theft Auto 6, one of the most anticipated releases in the industry, will be digital-only.
Even as publishers push consumers toward download-only models, the market is sending a different signal. The Recording Industry Association of America reported vinyl record revenue grew 7% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, an 18th straight year of growth. A Pringles-commissioned survey of 2,000 young people in Great Britain found 24% own a vintage gaming console, such as the 1989 Game Boy. Atlanta medical IT worker Rudy Ramirez, 38, said part of the appeal of physical media is the certainty that you actually own it.
The numbers come first, and here they tell a simple story: a corporation is asking a court to bless the idea that a $70 charge on a customer's card does not transfer ownership of the thing purchased. Whatever California's licensing-disclosure statute ultimately requires, the underlying principle is not a technicality. Property rights mean a buyer gets to keep what he pays for, and fine print buried beneath a button is a poor substitute for a plain deal.
Capital rewards clear rules, and consumers are already adjusting accordingly. The resurgence of vinyl and cartridges is not nostalgia; it is a market correcting for a licensing model that treats a sale like a lease. If publishers want customers to keep trusting the word 'buy,' the burden is on them to mean it.
