Following the controversial announcement of the PlayStation’s all-digital transition for early 2028, discontent is growing among players. Faced with this situation, Sony Japan has just put in place a new strict policy concerning the behavior of its customers. They are allowed to express their dissatisfaction, but only up to a certain point, or risk having customer service cut off, or even facing legal action.
At the beginning of September, Sony Japan introduced a new policy concerning customer harassment toward the brand. In short, dissatisfied customers are not allowed to be too aggressive with Sony. A timing that is by no means coincidental, since the company's customers have a major reason to be dissatisfied: from early 2028, PlayStation will stop selling games in Blu-Ray format and switch to all-digital. And if frustration is expressed in most cases by a simple wave of harsh comments online, it can sometimes go much further, forcing the manufacturer to take the lead.
PlayStation: protecting employee safety
To justify this stance, Sony Japan management highlights the protection of its teams against these excesses. “Our company strives to provide honest service so that its customers can use its products and services with complete peace of mind, and we attach great importance to feedback from our customers in order to improve our services,” says this new regulation. However, the dignity and safety of our employees must not be threatened by harassment from customers, including remarks or demands that go beyond what can be considered reasonable in light of social norms.”
PlayStation: legal action considered
Among the unreasonable examples are “persistent and repeated, or prolonged, requests, excessive or unreasonable demands for compensation or apologies, as well as abusive language, threats, defamation and other similar behavior.” Or even “entering our offices or establishments connected to them without authorization.”
In these extreme cases, the company indicates that it could “restrict or suspend its customer service” in order to protect its employees and, if necessary, contact “the police, lawyers, etc.” to initiate legal proceedings.
