It’s claimed that in addition to exploiting its dominant position, Sony bans other potential app stores from having access to the PlayStation platform.
It would be fascinating if this lawsuit forces Sony to open their platform to 3rd party stores. I am assuming they would be far more opposed to this than even any multi-hundred million euro fines.
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The “huge fines” aren’t huge enough if they can continue to be fined and still make a profit.
Their accountants factor it in as a expense
Microsoft is going in that direction now, thankfully.
To be honest that would just be the end of the consoles system as there is a reason Sony is selling the PS5 for so cheap.
As much as I understand why Apple shouldn’t be allowed to keep everything in the Apple Store, Sony’s situation isn’t the same.
But what would bother me more is if Sony starts to raise the prices of everything without justification.
I got a Steam Deck and I’m slowly migrating my gaming from Playstation only to Linux/Playstation gaming. Still a Playstation 5 is a great product, especially with kids and its ease of use and great graphics for your bucks.
To be honest that would just be the end of the consoles system as there is a reason Sony is selling the PS5 for so cheap.
They stopped selling them for cheap as soon as they reached market dominance, so good riddance I say.
I’m also not sure how much the PS exerience differs from Xbox, but my last console was an XOne (got it for cheap) specifically because I wanted the “no fuss” experience, and it was such a headache that it convinced me to switch to PC instead.
Well I bought my ps5 a while ago, but I think that despite the price increase, it’s still cheaper than a comparable PC.
As for the no fuss experience, my Steam Deck, which I love and have had for a few month, has already given more to tinker and solve than my ps5 in a few years.
I just think that the Playstation experience isn’t as good and cheap as it used to be compared to PC.
Cheapness ended after PS3 era I think. Even if it (ps4, ps5) is cheaper than a comparable PC, online access after a year or two would probably ruin all the savings.
Agreed but you can play only offline without missing on much. I currently have the ps plus for a few more months, but I’m dropping it as the only one playing online is my son and hés playing fortnite.
But, if you’re an online player, it’s gonna be cheaper to play on pc.
Agreed but you can play only offline without missing on much
That’s such a bad take. Game companies are not allowed to have multiplayer that bypasses psn network.
The Sony and Nintendo have dominant positions in the game market for their consoles. The wallet garden must be breached for the consumer - why do you cate about company profits🙃
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I totally agree and it’s a pleasure to read someone who’s able to talk about the advantages of each side.
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We sold our PS and now have a gaming PC hooked up to the TV.
Been a few teething issues with convenience issues like being able to turn it on from the couch, but the experience has gotten pretty smooth now.
How is it even going to work though? The SDK is under NDA, there is no documentation and devkits are not sold freely, so random studios can’t just develop games for Playstation and upload to a 3rd party marketplace
Assuming they are forced to open up their platform, I’m sure they would be required to make changes to make it possible for others to use it.
I wish it covered how they went from selling cards giving time for PS+, to requiring mismatched currency cards for PS+.
Wait what? I’m mostly steam now so I’m out of the loop. What the fuck…?
I don’t get how Apple has to open their shit up (although they’re certainly dragging their heels over it and sulking like a toddler) but Sony, MS and Nintendo don’t.
Microsoft seems to be preemptively doing that already.
Not because they’re required to, but because their console platform is dying lol. I mean, I welcome the changes, but I’m sure long-time Xbox users are not as happy with it.
It could also be a strategy to then lobby and make everyone else give up their stores, levelling the playing field.
I was a PS gamer since the PS1. Thousands of hours spent over decades.
I switched to PC (linux) late last year and my PS Plus membership lapsed in April of this year. I won’t be back.
I like to read the comments left by people/“people” on these types of websites, and all those comments were basically saying that this is a little overstepping since “there is plenty of competition” i.e. Xbox and Nintendo.
One of them even said something about “imagine DRM on like your tractor” or something like that, and boy howdy do I wish I didn’t have to create an account to comment back, “Like John Deere…?”
I thought recent rulings talked about Consoles as a special class that was exempt from being forced to have third party stores. Was this EU only? I found it notable, because I think if iOS is forced to have third party app stores, consoles should be too.
I don’t have explicitly what you’re looking for as I am not a lawyer, but game consoles aren’t a general-purpose computing device (despite theoretically capable of being one if appropriately jailbroken), and as such, prior case law for PC doesn’t apply.
iOS/Android tend to be classified a general-purpose computing device because it does all the same things a PC does (or did) and more. It plays games and does banking and plays music and browses the web and displays pictures and movies, etc etc. For some, it’s their primary and only computing device.
game consoles aren’t a general-purpose computing device
I know that’s the legal argument that manufacturers make, but it’s always been bad faith. Long gone are the days when a console does one thing: play games. Now they stream, have web browsers, social media, apps… they’ve been general purpose for many, many years. Being locked down anti-competitively is not an excuse for something to be locked down anti-competitively.
I agree with your argument overall, but I think it would be reasonable to say they are broader-purpose computing devices now, and are not yet general-purpose. Consumers don’t have an expectation to reach for their game console to do an arbitrary thing. They generally can expect their phone or laptop to.
“There’s an app for that” just isn’t true for huge swathes of apps on almost all consoles.
