PlayStation Lawsuit Settlement Could Put Money Back In Your Digital Wallet - Here's How
A $7.85 million class action suit filed against Sony and PlayStation has been granted preliminary approval from a judge and will now go through a final approval hearing in October. The lawsuit alleges that Sony illegally removed competition and raised prices. This happened in 2019, when Sony stopped third-party sales (Amazon, Walmart, and GameStop) of digital vouchers. By making the PlayStation Store the only place to buy the related games and raising prices, it violated federal antitrust laws.
If the settlement is approved, around 4 million U.S. PlayStation customers who bought games through the PlayStation Store before April 2019 will be a part of the class-action lawsuit. If your PlayStation Network account is the same, you should receive credits redeemable in your digital wallet automatically. If you deactivated your account, you will need to visit the official PSN Digital Games Settlement website and contact the administrators to request a paper check instead.
The deadline to do that is August 27, 2026. If you would like to opt out, so you can potentially sue separately, you must submit a manual exclusion request by July 2, 2026. As for how much you'll receive, there's no specified amount yet. Around 25% of the $7.85 million settlement fund will go towards attorneys' fees, and the rest to class members. Another £2 billion suit has been filed against PlayStation in the U.K. and is ongoing.
What games qualify for the settlement?
As the requirements are fairly specific, here's what else you need to know. If you are a U.S resident and purchased one qualifying digital game through the PlayStation Store after April 1, 2019, and before December 31, 2023, you may qualify. The affected titles must have had a previously available digital voucher, meaning you could have bought them through a third-party like GameStop or Amazon before Sony removed the option. Several major titles are included, like "The Last of Us," "Resident Evil 4," "FIFA," "Destiny 2," "God of War Collection," and many more. The full list of eligible games can be found on the official settlement website.
This isn't the first time PlayStation players have been part of a class action suit. In 2018, Sony gave PS3 owners a $65 settlement related to an operating system feature removed from the console series. Similar to the previous payout, the current one is likely to be small since it will be distributed among millions of players. A Google class action will see Android users getting $135 million, paid out individually in small increments. Apple is also paying a $250 million lawsuit, which will see about $95 going to some iPhone users.
It may be a while before you see any of those funds added to your PlayStation wallet, as well. The final approval hearing is in October 2026, and that needs to happen before any funds are distributed. In the meantime, Sony raised the price of the PlayStation 5.