Sony Interactive Entertainment has argued in court filings that ‘reasonable’ customers are already aware that they do not own any title that are purchased digitally via the PlayStation Store.
Four Californian PlayStation users filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the hardware manufacturer on June 18, 2026, win the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. They claimed that Sony “fails to clearly and conspicuously disclose to consumers at the point of sale that these transactions do not convey ownership of the digital games,” adding the console maker instead “relegates this information to inconspicuous text or separate agreements that consumers are not required to affirmatively acknowledge.”
PlayStation users are currently presented with the following text when making a digital purchase: “By selecting [Confirm Purchase], you agree to complete the purchase in accordance with the PlayStation Terms of Service before using this content. You further acknowledge that your purchase of this digital product amounts to a license subject to the Software Product License Agreement.”
Sony filed its response on August 21, 2026, stating that its existing disclosures, which are contained within its PlayStation Terms of Service and Software Product License Agreement (SPLA), meet California’s disclosure requirements. The SPLA clearly states that users do not own the product as it’s licensed, not sold; this detail, as GameFile points out, appears hundreds of words into the document.
Lawyers representing Sony pointed out that true ownership of a digital title is “not plausible” due to the fact a digital file isn’t inherently scarce, unlike a physical object. It illustrated this point by arguing hypothetically that if purchasing conveyed real ownership, then Edward Heycock, one of the plaintiffs, wouldn’t have been able to purchase Resident Evil Requiem on February 25, 2026, after Jason Mendoza, another plaintiff, had previously bought the same digital title on February 14, as ownership would have been claimed by Mendoza, as opposed to remaining with Sonny to sell again.
Sony announced earlier this summer that it’s planning to go digital-only in January 2028, at which point it will cease production of physical game discs on PlayStation hardware. The company’s decision has been met with considerable backlash, with many of Sony’s social media posts and YouTube videos flooded with comments such as ‘no disc, no buy’ and other related chatter.
Shawn Layden, the former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment, told Eurogamer in early July that he “doesn’t necessarily agree” with Sony’s decision to scrap physical media, but suggested “it’s just too prohibitively expensive to stamp out discs.”