A Ukrainian indie game developer has taken to social media to decry Sony after the publisher blocked the planned release of their popular game on PlayStation platforms.
Ternox Games shared on X that Sony had unilaterally terminated the studio’s developer and publisher agreement, which permits independent studios to list their games on the PlayStation Store, without giving any reason or explanation. Because of the decision, the studio is unable to launch stock market simulation game Stonks-9800 on the platform.
The developer added that Sony has ignored all attempts at communication, including multiple emails to the company directly. Because of this, Ternox Games will now focus on self-publishing the title only on Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Plans for physical versions for the aforementioned consoles remain in the works, but all PlayStation versions will be canned.
Now that Ternox Games’ developer and publisher agreement has been terminated, all of the studio’s 13 previously released games will be removed from the PlayStation Store in the coming days. Fans were encouraged to pick them up as soon as possible before they’re gone for good.
Sony’s Digital Monopoly: Is It Time to Wrestle Back Control?
The silence provided by Sony to Ternox Games after ultimately robbing the studio of their livelihood echoes the experience of other indie developers who have faced similar David vs. Goliath battles against mega corporations whose whims dictate what does and does not make it to their digital storefronts.
It also raises questions about the governance of such huge platforms, with Sony being the judge, jury and executioner of any game that comes to the PlayStation Store. Since there are no competing digital stores on PlayStation, Sony ultimately has a monopoly on this front and can dictate what games are classified, promote certain titles and even control pricing across the platform.
Sony had unilaterally terminated the studio’s developer and publisher agreement […] without giving any reason or explanation.
The reach of Sony’s power has received negative attention recently, particularly in the wake of the company’s devastating decision to no longer support physical games beyond January 2028. Since the announcement last month, fans have fumed online and asked questions about who truly owns digital products.
Technically, when you purchase a game on a digital storefront like the PlayStation Store, you are not purchasing the game proper like you would buying a disc version. Instead, you become the owner of a digital license which permits you access to the game–but this license can be revoked by Sony or game publishers under certain conditions.
This license cannot be resold or transferred for any reason, and if Sony decides to remove the purchased game from its digital store, access is permanently lost–even though you have paid money for that access in the past. Since Sony’s drastic all-digital decision, fans are reassessing the realities of digital ownership and are vocally protesting the company’s shift as anti-consumer.
Players even lose access to their library of digital games if the PlayStation Network faces outages–a situation that arose just last month and further intensified online discussions about game ownership. Some have hoped that Sony would about-face, especially in the face of scorching fan criticisms, but the company has seemingly doubled down and now ships PS5 consoles with warning labels declaring the future as digital-only.
Since Sony’s drastic all-digital decision, fans are reassessing the realities of digital ownership and are vocally protesting the company’s shift as anti-consumer.
Other companies also appear to be following suit, with an insider claiming Microsoft will go all-digital too, ending its support of physical games in the near future. However, the company says it will work hard to bring as many XBOX and XBOX 360 games to its current generation consoles through an innovative disc-to-digital program, which allows developers to easily emulate their titles on newer hardware thanks to Microsoft’s in-house emulation technology.
Despite vocal support online for physical releases, recent industry trends have shown that up to 90% of sales for mega-publishers like Square Enix come through digital channels. However, fans have been quick to point out that this figure may not fully reflect true support for disc-based releases as many games (both indie and AAA) are released as digital-only products, which will, of course, skew official figures.
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