Buyers of digital PlayStation games do not own them - Sony lawyer responds to lawsuit
This summer, Sony announced plans to abandon PlayStation game discs. Some gamers are not thrilled about the prospect of going digital: the secondary market for discs will disappear, Sony will be able to dictate prices, and users will no longer own their games.
From a technical standpoint, a “digital version of a game” is a license. Under certain circumstances, a player may lose access to purchased content.
Sony is currently being sued in various countries, and GameFile recently drew attention to a statement by the company's lawyer. One of the lawsuits was prompted by Sony's possible violation of California's digital purchases law — players believe that buyers are not properly informed that they are acquiring a license:
Consumers who “purchase” digital games through the PlayStation Store do not acquire ownership of those products. Instead, PlayStation merely grants a limited, revocable license to access the software.
Sony's defense explains that ownership of a digital asset (game) is impossible because a player cannot own something purchased in a digital store if the same copy has already been acquired by another person.
Media outlets cite an example used to prove that a digital version of a game cannot be owned:
As plaintiffs acknowledge, Section 1 of the SPLA also expressly states: “The Software is licensed, not sold, to you.” This is logical: in the digital age, it is implausible to argue that reasonable consumers believed they were acquiring “ownership” of a digital game. If that were the case, plaintiff Edward Haycock would not be able to purchase the game Resident Evil Requiem on February 25, 2026, for $69.99 in the PlayStation Store after plaintiff Jason Mendoza purchased Resident Evil Requiem on February 14, 2026 — because then it would be owned by Mendoza, not Sony.
Rumor has it that the abandonment of PlayStation game discs may be postponed for some time. Allegedly, Microsoft is now trying to strengthen its position and tells partners that the next Xbox console will support physical copies.
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