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The story
Australian consumer rights group Choice has reportedly named Sony Interactive Entertainment one of this year’s “Hall of Shame” award recipients, sparking discussion on 5ch’s hardware/industry board. The reason cited: digital games don’t come with real ownership — Sony itself states that what customers are actually buying is a “license to access content.” Choice holds official, government-designated authority to file formal complaints in Australia, meaning this could escalate into a request for an ACCC investigation. The thread was split: some argued the coming end of physical discs will make the ownership problem worse, others pushed back against the dynamic pricing reportedly under consideration, and there was debate over how this differs from Switch and Xbox.
PlayStation Wins “Hall of Shame” Award From Consumer Rights Group
Australian consumer advocacy group Choice has named Sony Interactive Entertainment one of the recipients of its annual “Hall of Shame” awards. Alongside vocal groups of gamers critical of the issue, Choice is calling out PlayStation for not giving players ownership of their digital games — a problem it believes will only get worse as the platform moves toward ending physical disc releases.
In its article, Choice writes: “PlayStation has won this dubious honor for charging players to play without giving them ownership.” According to Sony Interactive Entertainment, “movies and games purchased as digital downloads rather than discs don’t actually grant ownership. What you’re purchasing is a license to access the content through Sony’s various digital storefronts, such as the PlayStation Store.”
Source: x.com / Original article here
What people said
Who cares.
And the industry's shame is 'Chony' (5ch's derisive nickname for Sony) — aka the Hall of Shame, lol
Boo-chan (5ch slang for Switch fanboys) really can't see reality lol
Sounds like the kind of phrase 'Alt' or 'Gikkuri' — those guys who love coining their own terms — would be into, lol
https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=hall+of+shame
It's an idiom used as the flip side of 'Hall of Fame.'
It's common enough to have been used as a drama or song title.
https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/306037/lyrics/136242/
Well, it's basically a cousin of 'Crappy Game of the Year' lol
Whoever came up with this has gotta be over 40
Yeah, PlayStation's so-called 'named pundits' would actually pull that off for real (sigh)
There are idiots out there brushing this off like that, but getting called out by this group in Australia is actually a serious deal.
This organization holds an official 'designated complainant' position with the Australian government, so if the issues they're flagging get taken seriously, it could trigger an investigation under Australian consumer protection law — and in the worst case, even a lawsuit.
This is a legit organization!
> In July 2024, Choice was designated by the federal government as one of three bodies with the authority to file formal complaints,
> able to submit an official complaint to the ACCC once a year. The ACCC is required to formally respond
> to complaints from designated bodies within 90 days.
ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)
Australia's national regulator for competition, consumer protection, fair trading, and product safety
Whoaaaaa lol
How are they gonna get past this roadblock, lol
I think the disc/ownership issue is the main point.
The earnings stuff is just extra
Then they could just stop selling in Australia, no?
Though that would spark an absolute riot of outrage
Paired with killing off physical media, it's about the worst combo imaginable.
Honestly, scrapping discs might just be one piece of completing an exploitative pricing system built around dynamic pricing.
If that actually gets rolled out for real, I think the backlash will be on a whole different level from what we're seeing now.
What's really blatant is that the 'member price' (shown when logged in) ends up higher than the 'general price' (shown when logged out) that's the one that would actually get searched and written about.
Maybe they should call it a 'superiority-complex price' instead of a 'member discount price.'
Honestly, even die-hard PS users would get pissed off at this.
The trial run is already done, so it'll probably launch for real around the end of next year, alongside the end of discs.
Re: #25
It comes out to about a $10 difference.
Low price for people unlikely to buy, high price for people likely to buy.
For early adopters, that's nothing but exploitation.
This time it's because, up until now, people could turn a blind eye to the digital-ownership problem precisely because physical media still existed — and that's exactly what's going away now.
What are PS fanboys gonna do with this one, lmao
Chony really is a company with nothing going for it
We are delighted to receive such a wonderful award.
It fills us with pride, and yet somehow also a bit of embarrassment.
We will continue to strive to live up to the honor of being inducted into the 'Hall of Shame.'
Thank you all very much today.
I'd think the right move would be prices getting cheaper the more you buy, though
From us as users that's how it feels,
but in practice, from the supplier's side it seems like new customers often get the better deal — same with phone plans or internet contracts.
That might maximize profit for the supplier,
but it's exactly the most dedicated users who end up getting burned out on it.
Is that right?
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Choice isn’t just a review outlet — in July 2024 it was designated by the Australian government as one of three bodies with the authority to file formal complaints with the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), able to submit an official complaint once a year, with the ACCC required to respond within 90 days. Because of this institutional weight, reactions in the thread split between those who dismissed it as “activists patting themselves on the back” and those who took it seriously as something that could genuinely lead to an investigation or regulation. Another point of debate is that the issue is directly tied to whether physical media exists at all. The Switch and Xbox/Steam also have download-only titles, but as long as discs remain an option, the ownership problem stays less visible — and posters pointed out that it’s PlayStation’s move toward discontinuing discs that has suddenly brought the issue to the surface. Backlash against the dynamic pricing reportedly under consideration — where member prices could end up higher than non-member prices — ties into this too, making clear the award wasn’t just a one-off jab, but landed at a moment when several concerns were converging at once.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “[Sad News] PlayStation Wins “Hall of Shame” Award From Consumer Rights Group“.
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