Culture
47%
Max Knoblauch

A fresh lawsuit filed against Sony alleges that video games sold on the PlayStation Store are 47% more expensive than their disc counterparts. Considering costs associated with manufacturing, packaging, and distribution aren’t associated with digital games, the cost discrepancy is shocking.

The lawsuit, filed in the Netherlands, accuses Sony of artificially keeping game prices high and echoes a similar multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed against Sony in the UK in 2022. Another lawsuit filed in Portugal makes many of the same claims.

Sony stopped allowing retailers to sell (and therefore discount) digital game keys in 2019 ahead of the debut of its PS5 console. Both Nintendo and Microsoft’s Xbox allow for third-party digital code sales.

Sony’s latest version of the PS5, the souped-up $700 PS5 Pro, is all-digital and customers who want to use physical games have to buy a separate disc drive for $80. Sony sold 9.5 million consoles in its most recent quarter, up 16% from the 2023 holiday season. The company, which hiked its gaming outlook for the year, said digital software sales rose about 14% year over year.

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Hollywood may have its best year at the box office since 2019, but streaming audiences are still obsessed with old content

Viewers are opting for catalog content over new shows and movies across (pretty much) every major streamer.

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Lionsgate persists with decade-long effort to make a “Monopoly” movie

America’s favorite board game is proving a tricky subject for a feature film.

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The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

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Millie Giles
PLAY THE BILLS
6/8/26
Last night’s Tony Awards were a curtain call for a record-smashing season on Broadway

This year’s star-studded theater awards wrapped up the highest-grossing season Broadway’s ever seen.

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Kids these days are listening to more songs from the good old days

Music nostalgia is in full swing, and the younger listeners of today appear to be partying like it’s pre-1999.

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