A $7.85 million PlayStation settlement could put store credit into millions of US PlayStation Network accounts. If final approval arrives, eligible gamers will not need to complete a claim form or chase down a payment.
The credit comes from an antitrust lawsuit over how Sony sold digital games. More than 4.4 million eligible accounts have been identified, but each account’s share will depend on the number of qualifying purchases made between April 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023.
Who qualifies for the PlayStation credit?
Anyone who bought a qualifying digital game during that period was enrolled in the settlement automatically. Sony will deposit PlayStation Store credit into eligible US PlayStation Network accounts if the court grants final approval.
No claim form is required. That makes this settlement different from many class actions that ask consumers to submit paperwork before receiving payment. Here, eligibility is tied to qualifying purchases and the PlayStation Network account connected to them.
The list of eligible games includes The Last of Us Remastered, Bloodborne, Until Dawn, NBA 2K18, and No Man’s Sky. The settlement materials estimate that individual recoveries will range from $0.91 to $33.66 in PlayStation Store credit.
That range reflects the purchase-based allocation plan. Each account’s payout will be prorated according to the number of qualifying purchases, with the figures described as about a dollar or two in store credit per eligible purchase.
Why Sony faced the lawsuit
Sony was sued by Agustin Caccuri on May 5, 2021. Two other lawsuits, from Adrian Cendejas and Allen Neumark, were consolidated into Caccuri’s case.
The lawsuit argued that Sony’s decision to stop selling download codes eliminated retail price competition and created a monopoly. Before April 2019, retailers could use vouchers to discount digital titles against PlayStation Store pricing. After April 2019, Sony’s storefront became the only place to buy digital games.
The legal fight took several turns. Chief Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed the original complaint on July 15, 2022, but the complaint was refiled and upheld in February 2023.
Sony then attempted to block the class action by relying on the class action waiver in its terms of service. The court rejected that effort in May 2024, and Sony agreed to settle rather than go to trial.
What happens at the October hearing?
The settlement still needs final approval. The fairness hearing is scheduled for October 15, 2026, before Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in San Francisco.
At that hearing, the court will rule on final approval and the allocation plan. Until the judge grants approval, the settlement credit is not final, even though eligible accounts have already been identified.
The headline settlement totals $7.85 million, but the amount available for account credits will be lower after legal fees and other approved awards. Lawyers may request attorneys’ fees of up to 25 percent of the settlement, while the three named plaintiffs may receive $30,000 in service awards.
That leaves roughly $5.89 million to be spread across 4,407,533 accounts. The final amount for each account will follow the approved allocation plan, with the number of qualifying purchases serving as the key factor.
For eligible PlayStation users, the process comes down to waiting for the court’s decision and watching the connected US PlayStation Network account. There is no claim form to submit under the settlement terms, and the credit will arrive through the account if approval moves forward.
Luke James summed up the modest windfall with a line that may fit many account balances: “Don’t spend it all at once.” The bigger story, though, is the court’s decision on whether this settlement closes a dispute over digital game pricing and access that began in May 2021.
