PlayStation Facing Massive Lawsuit for Allegedly Overcharging Customers

Over in the UK, PlayStation is facing a lawsuit in the amount of £5 billion, which would be comparable price-wise in USD. This legal claim has been made by consumer rights campaign Alex Neill, who claims PlayStation's terms and conditions placed on developers and publishers that sell games on its platforms are in breach of competition law.

As many gamers know, many platforms take a cut of all sales. This is not only true of Sony, but of other platforms like Steam and the App Store, which generally take 30%. One leading platform that takes less than this is the Epic Games Store, which takes 12%. It is this cut that Neill alleges is resulting in overcharges for consumers.

As reported by Sky News, VGC, and other UK news sources, the lawsuit claims that this cut is an anti-competitive strategy that is costing consumers millions when they can't afford it, with the case-leading partner Natasha Pearman also stating that such a strategy is resulting in "excessive prices to customers that are out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing its services." This lawsuit, if it were to go through, would result in any UK resident who has bought games or DLC from the PlayStation Store since August 2016 being entitled to up to £562 in damages, plus interest (with each person's bottom line being £67, plus interest).

This is said to benefit around 9 million people in the UK, if the suit was won. However, it's not the first anti-competitive lawsuit to be brought up against Sony or digital store owners, with those suits often being dismissed, and it's not likely to be the last either. The 70/30 revenue split has been around for some time, with Epic reducing its take to 12% being applauded, and there are many critics of the 70/30 model as a whole who believe it's outdated. It's a controversial, if sticking, revenue model, but Sony could easily argue how this is necessary to keep the lights on for its digital store, so to speak.

However, outside the funds being directed back into consumer hands, it's not clear if the lawsuit addresses the legalities or any resolutions for the 70/30 model. Specifically, it's unclear if the allegation is that Sony shouldn't be taking any commissions from third-party sales on its platform at all or if the 30% is simply too much. It should be noted that, per a recent poll, only about 6% of game developers believe the 70/30 model is justified.

Forza Horizon 5 Hot Wheels DLC Leaked Via Steam

Steam just leaked the header image for Forza Horizon 5's first major expansion pack, and the franchise is partnering up with Hot Wheels once more.

The fact that Forza Horizon 5 would be getting two major expansion packs over the course of its lifetime was known from the very start. Not only does the game's season pass (Expansions Bundle) specifically spell this out, but Playground Games' racing franchise has a set precedent for its DLC plan, with each new release getting exactly two post-launch expansions at some point in time.

Curiously, Playground Games has been rather quiet on that front, and Forza Horizon 5 players had virtually no idea what the game's first DLC might focus on. Now, however, that seems to be changing, as the game's official Steam page just leaked FH5's expansion 1, which seems to be another Hot Wheels DLC.

Though the leak for Forza Horizon 5's first major DLC was pulled back almost immediately, the page was backed up via a web archiving service, allowing users to share the link between them, should anybody be interested in checking the page out. That said, there's not much to this leak at all. The only significant piece of information was its Hot Wheels subject matter, since that was shown off as part of the special banner featured at the top of the page.

This leak is particularly surprising not just because the recent Hot Wheels Unleashed is a rather successful release, but also because Forza Horizon 3 already had its own Hot Wheels expansion pack. Its successor, on the other hand, received a LEGO-themed racing DLC, and the expectation was that Playground Games would come up with a different companion IP for Forza Horizon 5.

With that in mind, it seems that one of the best open-world racing games on the market is getting its wacky DLC early on this time around. Whereas FH3 and FH4 first received their "serious" expansion packs, only to follow them up with arcade collaboration releases later on, Playground Games seems to be doing things the other way around in this case. The Hot Wheels expansion pack is yet to be announced in an official capacity, too, which means it's got no release date at this time, either.

Finally, it may be worth pointing out that the splash screen itself doesn't seem to feature an existing Mexican location from the base FH5 game, but rather like a racing amusement park of some sort, perhaps. Whatever the case may be, players that are hoping to start farming the unique Hot Wheels replicas as soon as the DLC launches may wish to look into getting unlimited Wheelspins in Forza Horizon 5, too.