Stop Killing Games joins $457 million Dutch lawsuit accusing Sony of a PlayStation Store monopoly
A consumer campaign fighting to keep video games playable has thrown its weight behind a Dutch lawsuit seeking $457 million from Sony over its PlayStation Store.
Stop Killing Games, the movement founded by YouTube creator Ross Scott, has joined a legal action filed in the Netherlands by the consumer rights group Stichting Massaschade & Consument (SM&C). The suit accuses Sony of running a monopoly on digital game sales through the PlayStation Store — the only storefront where PlayStation owners can buy games digitally on their consoles — and was filed on behalf of 1.7 million Dutch PlayStation users (Eurogamer).
Another advocacy group, Does It Play?, has also signed on. Does It Play?, led by Clemens Istel, focuses on physical media and game preservation — the broader cause Stop Killing Games campaigns for under its European affairs lead Moritz Katzner and U.S. advocacy director Jonah Goldman.
SM&C has been building the case since 2025. The group launched a "Fair PlayStation" campaign before Sony announced in January 2028 that it would stop producing physical PlayStation game discs. Analysis in the Netherlands found that games are almost always cheaper in retail shops than on the PlayStation Store, undercutting the argument that the digital storefront offers competitive pricing.
The lawsuit lands at a difficult moment for Sony on this front. A separate class-action lawsuit was filed in the United Kingdom in March 2026, alleging that millions of users in the region were subjected to anti-competitive PlayStation Store practices (IGN).
For Stop Killing Games, the Dutch case follows a setback at the European level. The European Commission decided not to change legislation that would require publishers to keep games playable after shutting down their servers — the core issue the movement was built around. When a publisher switches off a live-service game's servers, players can lose access to something they paid for, with no recourse and no way to keep playing. Stop Killing Games has argued that this should not be legal.
By joining the Dutch action, the movement shifts its fight from policy to litigation. The PlayStation Store's 30% platform cut — the share Sony takes from every digital sale — is central to the complaint. Sony has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit's claims.
The outcome could shape how digital game marketplaces operate, not just in the Netherlands but across Europe. With Sony planning to end physical disc production in January 2028, more players than ever will be buying games exclusively through digital storefronts — and whatever terms those storefronts set.
