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ltbarcly3 5 hours ago

So they want Sony to be required to sell slightly discounted codes to resellers who then sell them to consumers? How does that matter to anyone besides resellers? I guess the resellers could pass some of that discount on to consumers? This seems like a pretty irrelevant concern since Sony is has no state granted or effective monopolies in game sales, they aren't a common carrier, they aren't benefiting from access to public right of ways or other exclusivity that gives them a market advantage that citizens need to be compensated for. I don't think this matters and I don't care about this.

true_religion 5 hours ago | parent [-]

It matters to consumers because businesses have greater financial power to pressure Sony into reducing prices than individual consumers.

Additionally, businesses will not only sell Sony codes. They won't be like car dealerships, tied to 1 manufacturer. Due to this, they'll have even greater incentive and negotiating position to pressure Sony as if Sony doesn't want to play ball, the sellers can start promoting non-Sony products to consumers.

With direct sales only, Sony can have perfect vertical integration: they make the console hardware, they make the custom OS, they own the game publishers, they own the developers, and they own the store that sells games too. That's beneficial only to Sony.

MBCook 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What prevents Sony from charging the retailers $60 for the code to a $60 game?

Congratulations, you can buy anywhere you want. You don’t have to buy from Sony. It just costs more.

Yeah, that’s gonna be real great for making games cheaper for you.

ltbarcly3 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

How do they have any power over Sony at all? Sony is telling them we don't even want to sell you codes at all, we don't want your business, go away. They have 0 leverage, Sony isn't going to negotiate with them. Sony will charge them the max they are allowed so that they can't make a profit and stop trying to resell.