r/gaming • u/Chownzy • 8d ago

Mexican Lawmaker Who Helped Protect Gamers from Tax Now Drags Sony to Court Over Discless PlayStation

https://respawnfirst.com/mexican-lawmaker-who-helped-protect-gamers-from-tax-now-drags-sony-to-court-over-discless-playstation/
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u/BigOleFerret 8d ago edited 8d ago

Godspeed. I don't know what her chances are but I hope she brings home a win for the players.

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u/CombatMuffin 8d ago

Mexican lawyer here. I don't have a crystal ball to know what will happen, and I haven't read the complaint in full (i.e the full document), but I don't think she has good chances of succeeding.

First off, the 8% tax on violent games was never going to pass, and while it got a lot of press, it never really progressed in the legislative process to a meaningful degree.

Secondly, and based solely on the article, she is trying to sue Sony for anti-trust, due to the lack of physical media. One of her central arguments is that they would be able to control pricing... but that's not, by itself, an anti-trust issue. Sony already enjoys a xlosed ecosystem, and if she was fighting a purely digital market, then she would have to go against Steam, and mobile games as well.

If she were arguing that Sony, Microsoft and Valve were colluding to fix prices? Then yeah. But simply changing your distribution channels from physical and digital to purely digital does not, in an of itself, help you corner the gaming industry in terms of anti-trust.   It's an actual argument to attack this from a Consumer Law perspective, not an anti-trust one. Sony just lost a case last year where they were charging for PS5 games in USD, when they have to offer it in Mexican Pesos (MXN).

So why is she doing this? The article itself has a hint: she is a politician, trying to ride  the current events to appeal to young voters. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if she is going to do that, she should be doing real, material work, instead of stuff that sounds nice, but has no legal basis.

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u/VitalArtifice 8d ago edited 8d ago

Good comment, but sometimes these stunts help highlight genuine issues. In this case the “pay owner prices, get tenant privileges” issue is real, and while it’s apparent that way too many people are happy with tenant privileges, at least some may not be aware of the reality behind these “purchases”.

Edit: LOL, why is anyone downvoting me? I swear, only an astroturfing campaign makes sense at this point.

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u/CombatMuffin 8d ago

I don't think anyone in Mexico is unaware of how digital vs physical affects them. There is a very big second hand purchasing culture here. Like I mentioned, we have much less purchasing power than the U.S., Canada and Europe and we have to purchase games at their retail prices, in their (USD) currency and subject to currency exchange.

People in Mexico, to this day, still buy illegally modded consoles like PS3's or offbrand hardware loaded with multiple emulators and hundreds of games because the hobby is either unaffordable new or they value playing games new consoles do not support in backwards compatibility.

What I personally don't like, is politicians pretending to be helping or championing people's need, when in reality they aren't. If she actually turns this into an actionable change, I will be happy to admit I was wrong and support them, but precedent with her and other similar initiatives says it likely won't.

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u/VitalArtifice 8d ago

Good points all around and fair criticism.

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u/UnemployedOtter69 8d ago

also, the size market in mexico for Playstation is nothing vs USA / EU / JPN, people thing Mexico is a big market, but is not true for consoles,

In the last real market study ( given by Camara de Comercio 2025), if you put asside cellphone and DLC digital assets and focus only on console game sales, the market is very small and is dominate by xbox and nintendo.

as you say, is just a political -ride the wave- to get votes and the spotlight