Flat lay of a sleek gaming console with wireless controllers on a white background.

Your PlayStation games are not yours

ByCabinet Lazuli

One Sunday evening, Thomas switches on his PlayStation 5. His library shows 214 games, built up over ten years for several thousand euros. That evening, a message stops him: “account suspended”. Not a single game will launch. Thomas has done nothing illegal; he even “bought” every one of those titles on the PlayStation Store. Can he demand to get them back? The answer may come as a surprise: those games were never his.

“Buy”: the word that misleads

On the PlayStation Store, as on Steam or the Nintendo eShop, the “buy” button triggers no sale in the legal sense. No ownership is transferred. By clicking, you enter into a licence: a personal right to use the game, under the conditions set by the PlayStation Network terms of service (the “Terms”). Those terms determine what you may do (download, play, sometimes share within your household) and what Sony may do: suspend an account, withdraw a title from the store, discontinue a service.

Nothing like the physical game sold in the past. The disc bought in a shop is tangible property that you own (Article 544 of the French Civil Code): you can lend it, resell it, bequeath it. The downloaded game, by contrast, does not belong to you. Subscriptions (PlayStation Plus, Game Pass) are upfront about their rental logic: everyone understands that the games disappear with the subscription. The “buy” button, for its part, suggests a definitive acquisition.

The industry, moreover, lives on a paradox: around two thirds of French players say they prefer the physical format1, while nearly 68% of game sales in Europe are now digital2.

Why you cannot resell your games

The question has been settled at the highest judicial level. For downloaded software, “second-hand” resale is possible: the publisher’s distribution right is exhausted upon the first sale3. But that rule, specific to software, does not extend to other digital works: for e-books, the CJEU refused to allow any second-hand market4.

Where does the video game fit? The French Cour de cassation answered as early as 2009: a video game is a complex work, which cannot be reduced to its software5. It drew the consequence in 2024, in the case brought by UFC-Que Choisir against Valve, the operator of the Steam platform: no resale of digital games. Your downloaded games are therefore non-transferable: no resale, no gift, no passing on.

The disc will not always protect you

Even the physical game has its limits. Many recent titles depend on servers operated by the publisher: online games, of course, but also single-player games requiring a permanent connection. When the publisher shuts down its servers, the disc becomes an empty shell: you still own it, but it is no longer good for anything. Players of The Crew (Ubisoft) learned this the hard way in 2024: servers closed, game rendered unplayable, including for those who had bought it in physical form. The terms accepted upon first connection provided for that possibility.

The Commission says no to 1.2 million petitioners

The shutdown of The Crew triggered an unprecedented mobilisation: the European citizens’ initiative “Stop Destroying Videogames” gathered more than 1.2 million validated signatures demanding that games remain playable after their commercial exploitation ends. The European Commission responded on 16 June 20266, and its position is clear: it will not impose on publishers any legal obligation to keep games in working order. The property right invoked by the players presupposed ownership; a licence confers none.

The Commission nevertheless announces three workstreams by the end of 2026: an industry code of conduct on the “end of life” of games, drawn up with the industry and consumer associations; awareness-raising on existing rights; and a report on the application of the Digital Content and Services Directive.

Your safety nets: consumer law

The absence of ownership does not mean the absence of rights. Consumer law imposes a serious framework on the platforms:

  • The conformity guarantee for digital content and services7: the game supplied must be in conformity and remain so, the trader must provide the necessary updates, and failure to supply gives the consumer the right to terminate the contract
  • Unfair terms8: a term that creates a significant imbalance to the detriment of the consumer is deemed unwritten. A discretionary account suspension with no means of redress, or the outright loss of all paid-for content, can be challenged on that ground
  • Pre-contractual information9: the trader must inform the consumer of the essential characteristics of the service, which includes the true nature of the “purchase”

The vocabulary of online stores (“buy”, “basket”, “library”) maintains a confusion that the Commission specifically intends to reduce: a visible distinction between sale and licence, and more explicit acceptance of the conditions of use.

The right reflexes

  • Keep invoices and purchase confirmations, even for digital content
  • Read what the terms provide in the event of account closure or discontinuation of a service
  • If an account is suspended or a game withdrawn, object in writing, ask for the reasons and invoke the conformity guarantee
  • Have the terms analysed before giving up: some clauses would not withstand judicial scrutiny

LAZULI advises studios, publishers, distributors and users of digital content: audit and drafting of terms of service and terms of sale, licences, consumer-law compliance, pre-litigation and litigation.

Jérémie LEROY-RINGUET, July 2026

  1. SELL, L’Essentiel du jeu vidéo, September 2025: https://www.sell.fr/sites/default/files/essentiel-jeu-video/ejv_septembre_2025_vdefpdf.pdf ↩︎
  2. GSD panel, 2025: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/us-physical-game-spend-has-halved-since-2021/ ↩︎
  3. CJEU, 3 July 2012, UsedSoft, C-128/11 ↩︎
  4. CJEU, 19 December 2019, Tom Kabinet, C-263/18 ↩︎
  5. Cass. 1re civ., 25 June 2009, no. 07-20.387, Cryo ↩︎
  6. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1369 ↩︎
  7. Directive (EU) 2019/770, transposed into Articles L. 224-25-1 et seq. of the French Consumer Code ↩︎
  8. Article L. 212-1 of the French Consumer Code ↩︎
  9. Article L. 111-1 of the French Consumer Code ↩︎

Similar Posts