Sony just opened themselves up to 3rd Party storefronts on PlayStation

[ArchangelMadzz]

Manlytears said:

ArchangelMadzz said:

After the Digital Markets Act in the EU specifically targeting apple in 2023 and recently the CMA in the UK expecting to do the same it was very clear that there is going to be a legal European trend for large locked down ecosystems to allow for 3rd party storefronts.

Before Sony never had to explore accommodating such a thing because buying PlayStation games was never a monopoly, there were 1000s of storefronts where you could purchase games physically and online. But now in 2028 there will be strictly 1 place and 1 storefront to buy PlayStation games and history shows that the EU will not be happy about this.

It seems to me like there's only 2 solutions for this:

1. Sony allow the Epic Games Store, Battlenet, EA, Ubisoft connect etc to be downloaded onto your console and exist as a storefront alongside the PlayStation store for 3rd party games.
2. Officially allocate digital codes to publishers that they will pay for to use on their online storefronts to buy 3rd party games there

I'm pretty sure of course the plan is to do and say nothing and wait for the law to force them into a decision.

3. Allow major retail chains to sell codes for PlayStation games supplied by Sony. Essentially, the process would work exactly as it does today with physical media, except that they would be using codes.

Furthermore, PlayStation hardware operates with profit margins that allow for the creation of "walled gardens."

They aren't like Apple, which makes a +200% profit on hardware. Sony's margins are razor-thin; the store is what makes the business sustainable.

3. Is definitely a workaround that doesn't change the status quo, I just don't think selling boxes with a code in will last very long. Surely by 2035 that will have been phased out.

To be fair this generation has been by far their most profitable generation, and given the size of the userbase the EU will definitely keep an eye on them.