PlayStation gamers could soon see a few extra bucks appear in their accounts—though "bucks" in this case means store credit. A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday gave initial approval to a proposed $7.85 million settlement in an antitrust case accusing Sony of illegally locking down the market for digital PlayStation games and driving up prices after 2019, Courthouse News reports. Roughly 4.5 million US accounts could qualify for a slice of the deal, which will be paid out entirely in PlayStation Network credits, not cash.
The plaintiff sued after Sony banned GameStop and other retailers from selling "download codes" for digital games, forcing gamers to pay higher prices at the PlayStation Store, Reuters reports. The class covers gamers who bought certain digital titles through the PlayStation Store that previously had retail voucher options and later saw post-discount prices rise by at least 50 cents. Payouts will depend on how many covered games each person bought, with estimated recoveries ranging from about 91 cents to $33.66 and an average of $1.14. Many of the games involved cost $2 or less.
A final approval hearing is expected in about six months. The judge rejected the settlement earlier this year over the plan to pay only in credits, saying she was trying "to grasp if your substantive argument is that the account credits reflect monetary value more so than they reflect a coupon," per Courthouse News. Courts tend to disfavor coupon settlements, though lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that credits shouldn't be considered because they don't expire and "apply to all products on the website, not just games but other content and anything available on the Sony PlayStation store."
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