Sony says people who buy games technically don't own shit

As reported by former Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo on his Game File Substack, Sony’s response to the suit asserts that Section 1 of its Homeric Software Product Licensing Agreement explains that “the Software is licensed [,] not sold.”

To justify this logic, Sony further asserts that one cannot “own” a digital copy of a game because, as it’s a digital file rather than physical media (which is currently being phased out by game companies like SIE), it cannot be possessed by any one individual. “In the digital age, it is not plausible to allege that reasonable consumers believed they were obtaining ‘ownership’ of a digital game,” Sony claims. “Were that the case, then [the plaintiff] would not have been able to obtain the game Resident Evil Requiem on February 25, 2026, for $69.99 from the PlayStation Store after [the other plaintiff] had obtained Resident Evil Requiem on February 14, 2026, because [they], not Sony, would have owned it then.” 

This digital-game reality is a quantum leap from the days when players could borrow their buddy’s Dark Souls disc after they’d chucked their own into traffic after getting their ass handed to them by Manus, Father of the Abyss, for the umpteenth time. Obviously, there were many physical copies of that game going around, as opposed to the only digital copy of Resident Evil Requiem that’s still somehow available to license on the PlayStation Store.

Indeed, Sony’s argument—that gamers don’t actually own shit when they hit “Buy Now” and “Complete Purchase” on the PlayStation Store, because those are words and words are wind—comes after the company recently emailed PlayStation account users to tap on their onerous Terms Of Service agreement. It reads, in part: “[In] addition to licenses of Virtual Content being subject to purchase and cancelation [sic] terms and conditions of the storefront/vendor, the availability of Virtual Content is not guaranteed, prices are subject to change, and order sizes may be limited without prior notice to you.” Here’s a fun part: “Purchases of Virtual Content licenses may be non-refundable.”