Stop Killing Games Backs 457M Dutch Class-Action Against Sony's PlayStation Store Monopoly

Stop Killing Games and Does It Play have publicly backed a 457 million dollar (about 400 million euro) Dutch class-action targeting Sony's grip on the PlayStation Store. The Dutch consumer rights foundation Stichting Massaschade and Consument filed the case in 2025 on behalf of roughly 1.7 million Dutch PlayStation users, and Stop Killing Games confirmed today that it is putting its full weight behind the courtroom push. The core claim is straightforward: Sony is the only company allowed to sell digital games on a PlayStation, and it uses that closed loop to keep prices artificially high. With Sony already confirming that it will stop producing new physical discs after January 2028, the lawsuit now sits at the front of a fight over what PlayStation ownership will mean a year from now.

The groups posted a short video this week titled 'It is time to sue Sony, join us,' and the description leaves little doubt about the framing. Stop Killing Games says it is backing SM and C 'with the Dutch court' and treating the foundation's case as the global flagship for its anti-server-killing mission. SM and C needs to show the judge that it represents actual Dutch gamers, not a theoretical class, so every PlayStation owner in the Netherlands who signs on makes the standing argument stronger. That is the whole game here: a consumer-led case in a country that already forces tech giants to open up, with Stop Killing Games as the loud international megaphone.

What the lawsuit actually argues

SM and C's filing argues that Sony's control of the PlayStation Store is an abuse of a dominant market position under Dutch and European competition law. Because every digital purchase on a PlayStation has to flow through a single store that Sony both owns and operates, there is no realistic price competition inside the console. A consumer cannot open a different storefront on their PS5, cannot side-load a Steam or Epic purchase, and cannot even check a competing digital market on the same box. The legal theory is not new in Europe, where the Digital Markets Act already forces Apple and Microsoft to allow alternative app stores on phones and Windows, but applying it to a closed gaming console is the test case nobody has won yet.

The argument gets sharper once you add Sony's own numbers. The plaintiffs point to Dutch retail analysis showing that physical copies of major PlayStation titles are almost always cheaper than the same game on the PlayStation Store, and that the so-called Sony Tax can run 40 percent or more on a digital copy versus a disc in a shop window. That is the kind of concrete number a judge can hang a ruling on: not a vibes-based claim that digital feels expensive, but a specific, reproducible price gap caused by the lack of a competing storefront on the same device.

The 'Sony Tax' in practice

Walk into a Dutch game shop and you will see the pattern. A new AAA release on disc sells for the publisher's MSRP minus the usual retail margin, often with a launch discount stacked on top. Pull up that same title on the PlayStation Store and the price is usually 20 to 30 euro higher, sometimes 40 or more on day one. The store has no logistics cost, no plastic case, no printed manual, and no shipping, so the gap is not paying for production. It is paying for the absence of anyone else allowed to sell the same digital license to the same console. SM and C and Stop Killing Games are betting the Dutch court will agree that this is a textbook abuse of dominance, and that the only structural fix is to force Sony to open the storefront to other sellers.

There is a property-rights version of the same complaint sitting underneath the price one. When you buy a disc, you own a copy of a game that you can resell, lend, or set on a shelf until the disc drive dies. When you buy a digital copy on the PlayStation Store, you get a license tied to your PSN account that Sony can revoke, modify, or withdraw if a publisher pulls the plug. Sony itself has already shown how brittle that can be: from September 1, 2026, British PlayStation users will lose access to movies and series they bought through the PlayStation Store because a StudioCanal license is expiring. The plaintiffs argue that if Sony controls the only store and the only license terms, the resulting price is not a real market price at all.

Why Stop Killing Games joined now

Stop Killing Games spent the last year pushing the European Commission to amend consumer law so that publishers cannot kill a game's servers without offering a way to keep the game running. That push lost momentum after the Commission declined to change the rules, telling Stop Killing Games and its supporters that current law already covers the worst abuses. The group needed a new lever, and SM and C's Dutch case is a ready-made one that does not require Brussels to move first. Backing it gives Stop Killing Games a domestic courtroom in a country that has already shown it is willing to drag American tech giants through long, expensive trials over digital storefront rules.

The timing is not a coincidence. Sony confirmed in July 2026 that it will end production of new physical PlayStation discs starting January 2028, citing consumer preferences even as the SM and C case alleges the exact opposite. Once that cut-off hits, the only way to buy a new PlayStation game at all will be through the PlayStation Store, which is the precise scenario the lawsuit was built around. The plaintiffs now have a 16-month window in which Sony is still selling discs, retail still competes, and a court can rule on the digital side before the physical fallback disappears.

What a win would actually change

If the Dutch court rules in favor of SM and C, the obvious outcome is damages paid out to the 1.7 million PlayStation users in the class, with a chunk going to the foundation. The less obvious but more important outcome is structural: a precedent that a console maker cannot lock digital sales to its own store and call it a free market. That precedent would land inside the European Union, which is the regulatory zone that has already cracked open mobile app stores, payment systems, and browser engines. Once one member state's court says a console is a closed platform under competition law, the rest of the EU has a template it can use tomorrow.

For players, the practical upside is the one PC users have had for two decades: choice. Alternative storefronts on a PlayStation would not just be cheaper, they would let you keep a digital library if you ever want to leave the ecosystem, they would create real price pressure on Sony's own store, and they would give third-party publishers a way to sell direct without a 30 percent cut. None of that is guaranteed by a SM and C win, but it is the only path that produces them, and Stop Killing Games knows it.

CriticalPixel take

This is the lawsuit PlayStation fans have been begging someone to file for years, and it is a little embarrassing that it took a Dutch consumer foundation and a server-killing protest group to do it. The 47 percent digital premium is not a secret, the closed-store situation is not a secret, and the looming death of physical discs makes the case urgent instead of theoretical. If you have ever felt sick to your stomach seeing a digital game priced 20 to 30 euro above the same disc on a shop shelf, this case was filed on your behalf. The realistic outcome is some damages and a noisy precedent, not a sudden open PlayStation Store, but the precedent alone is worth the fight. Sign on if you are Dutch, support the cause if you are not, and tell Sony with your wallet that you are paying attention.