The problems for Sony and PlayStation continue, as the Autorité de la Concurrence, France's regulatory agency, recently fined the companies. The reason? After an investigation related to PS4 and its controls, the authorities concluded that the companies abused their position in the video game market. For such reason, they will have to pay millions to get out of this mess.
Sony receives million-dollar fine for restricting third-party controls on PS4
According to the Autorité de la Concurrence, Sony impaired the operation of certain third-party controllers for PlayStation 4. This happened in 2015, when the company took steps to fight controller piracy.
However, not everything went as expected, as some of the measures affected third-party products, which suffered disconnections during system updates. On the other hand, the regulator accuses the company of placing obstacles for certain companies to join the PlayStation licensing program.
According to the details, Sony refused to share details about its licensing program with some manufacturers. In addition, it was only licensing through its partnership program, which limited the options for some companies interested in PS4 and its user base.
The Autorité de la Concurrence concludes that these decisions caused damage to the image of certain brands and manufacturers. In addition, they limited their growth in the market. For such reason, Sony will have to pay a fine equivalent to $14.8 MDD.
At the time of writing this, the Japanese company has not issued a statement on the matter. So it is not known if it will try to appeal the French regulator's decision in any way. We will have to wait to know more about it.
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