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00:05Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we're taking a look at 10 instances where PlayStation made
00:11some egregiously greedy decisions. Before we begin we publish new videos all week long so
00:27be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our
00:30latest videos. The PS3's absurd pricing. This was the moment most deemed as the
00:49moment when Sony became arrogant Sony. At E3 2005 Microsoft and Sony revealed the
00:56Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as their newest consoles respectively. For the Xbox 360
01:02you could get just the console for $299.99 USD or get the console with a
01:07controller, headset, and a 20 gigabyte hard drive for a hundred dollars more. Sony
01:13thought they could get away with charging an obscenely larger price for the
01:17PlayStation 3. Man I love that rack! It just keeps going doesn't it Gary?
01:23The infamous $599.99 reveal immediately scared off customers. Things took a turn
01:29for the worst in July 2005 when Japanese economy website Toyo Keizai published an
01:35interview with then PlayStation executive Ken Kutaragi. In said interview, Kutaragi
01:41claimed it was Sony's goal to supposedly get customers quote, to think to
01:45themselves, I will work more hours to buy one. We want people to feel they want it
01:50more than anything else. End quote. And PlayStation nearly died.
01:56Even as an arrogant young prince he was capable of cruelty beyond measure. Now he
02:02commands an entire army. Nearly shutting down PlayStation stores.
02:16While we're on the subject of PlayStation 3, this and other old iterations of the
02:21digital storefront PlayStation Store came under threat in 2021. The public
02:27threw itself into a frenzy when Sony announced they were planning to pull the
02:30plug on the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita storefronts. It was all anybody could talk
02:37about for weeks on end.
02:45It is worth noting that these storefronts are running on ancient
02:49hardware and do not run super well in general, but there are also a ton of games
02:54stranded on these platforms, making some of them only accessible via these
02:59storefronts. After all of the outrage, Sony partially walked back on their plans. The
03:04PSP PlayStation Store would be shut down, while the PS3 and Vita stores would live
03:09on just a while longer. And they're still on at the time of this video.
03:21Upgrade Charges.
03:31With the number of cross-gen titles we saw during the early years of the PlayStation 5, you would
03:36think Sony would try to sell even more copies by bundling the PS4 and PS5 versions together.
03:42They did for a little bit, but that quickly deteriorated when the conglomerate realized they
03:47could just charge just an extra bit of dough for the PS5 version.
04:02Oh, you want the 4k resolution? You want 60 frames per second? You want all of that fancy stuff your
04:09PS5 can do, which are the
04:11reasons you bought the PS5 in the first place? Well, cough up an extra 10 bucks per
04:16game. When games were already costing 60 to 70 dollars, this seemed excessive, especially when
04:23these upgrades, quote-unquote, were being charged for games that we had already bought
04:27months or even years prior.
04:35Awful refund policies.
04:38You know me, I'm a man of the bids, so I need to know what I get out of it.
04:45Of all the video game platforms, Sony has been notorious for having one of the most anti-consumer
04:50refund policies on the market. If you've paid for a game, you can get a refund so long as you
04:56never
04:56downloaded it or installed it to a console. If you download the game even once, your potential
05:03for a refund is null and void entirely. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
05:14To be fair, there have been some instances where Sony has walked back on this policy and offered
05:19refunds, such as the botched launch of Cyberpunk 2077, the short-lived Concord, and the disastrous
05:26release of Mind's Eye. But those moments are few and far between. If you want better refund
05:31policies, Nintendo, Steam, and even Xbox have shown to be much more willing to work with customers
05:37towards a resolution. Within reason, of course.
05:40You're under arrest!
05:42Stay where you are!
05:43The push for live service.
05:52In 2022, the public learned that Sony had begun making a massive push for live service titles
05:59across all of its major studios. One can understand why Sony would want a live service of their own,
06:04once you see how much money Fortnite, Apex Legends, and the like were printing.
06:14However, in the years that followed, the greed was on full display as several projects were canned,
06:20such as a Spider-Man multiverse spinoff and even a reboot of Twisted Metal. Concord would become
06:26infamous for only being around for two weeks before its plug was pulled. And to make everything worse,
06:32the financial losses from this movement led to a number of other non-live service projects
06:37to get shut down along with rounds of layoffs.
06:47Raising PlayStation Plus prices.
06:54As the 2020s continue seeing more and more economic turmoil across various industries,
07:00many companies' decisions to raise prices are coming across like their own expenses are at the
07:06customer's fault and should therefore have to pay more. Sony is among these companies,
07:11as they decided that we weren't paying enough for PlayStation Plus across the board.
07:15So, in 2023, the corporation raised prices for each PlayStation Plus membership plan.
07:27The basic plan seeing a $20 increase from $60 a year to $80. You would think this price hike
07:34would lead to better choices for monthly games, and yet we have months where we're getting
07:39frickin' Generation Zero or some PGA Tour game as one of the additions.
07:44From the sand, looking to get up and down.
07:50Starving PlayStation Plus Premium.
07:59When it comes to the price of PlayStation Plus, no type of user is getting fleeced harder than the
08:06premium users. I am speaking as a premium user. Part of the promise with PlayStation Plus Premium is
08:12instant access to classic games initially released on PS1, PS2, and PSP. At first, it was a fair
08:20deal as we were getting two classics added every month. But in recent years, Sony has begun cheating
08:26premium members out of their $160 a year by only adding in one classic game per month.
08:33After 10 years of suffering, 10 years of endless nightmares, it would finally come to an end.
08:41What's more aggravating is that there are still plenty, and we're talking hundreds if not thousands,
08:48of PS1, PS2, and PSP classics that have yet to crop up, such as Ape Escape 3, the original God
08:57of War,
08:57the Crash Bandicoot games, and even the original Ratchet and Clank PS2 games. So why does this plan
09:05cost obscenely higher than any of the other memberships? Oh, but you can also stream your games!
09:12Wow, color me impressed.
09:24Dynamic Pricing
09:37In 2025, players began taking notice of some PS5 users getting better deals on certain
09:43games compared to others. These instances were only spotted by a few individuals,
09:49but the situation became much more noticeable in 2026 when Sony was found utilizing dynamic pricing
09:55on PlayStation Store. Depending on an unknown criteria attached to your profile, you can get
10:09certain games at a discount that others may not have access to. This understandably caused a massive
10:15amount of outrage, as many users saw it as unfair to other users, especially when it came to trying
10:21to recommend games to friends. At the time of this video, Sony has yet to clarify on the matter.
10:46The 2020s have been a rough decade for PlayStation Studios. While the big hitters like Sucker Punch Productions and
10:53Insomniac games keep churning out solid hits, some of the other branches have been straight
10:58up closed down. Bluepoint Games, London Studio, Pixel Opus, and Neon Koi were shut down without
11:04getting much of a fair shot in finding their place within the brand. But the biggest loss of all was
11:09Japan Studio, which had shut its doors after a power struggle within Sony corporate between the
11:15Japanese and Western executives. Ever since these closures, PlayStation continues to look more homogenized
11:31with its open-world action RPGs, which is part of the reason why Astro Bot came as such a massive
11:36surprise in 2024. But with every closure, our concern for Team Asobi grows.
11:55Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's album Balance,
11:59classical music reimagined as rock, hard rock, and metal. Check out the full track and album below.
12:18And lastly, raising the price of the PlayStation 5.
12:24Sam, would you mind if I join you? Humor him. His knowledge and experience
12:30will probably come in handy down the road. In the days of yore,
12:34video game consoles would go down in price over time as parts became scarcer and companies like
12:40PlayStation would be gearing up to launch a new console. However, in the future year 2026,
12:46that is no longer the case apparently. On March 27th, 2026, Sony announced that it would be raising
12:51the price of the PlayStation 5 by $100. The PS5 Pro, on the other hand, would get an increase of
12:58$200.
12:59The reason? Quote, continued pressures in the global economic landscape, end quote.
13:06Likely citing the RAM shortages seen in late 2025 and early 2026 caused by artificial intelligence
13:13developer OpenAI. Thanks guys.
13:16You don't know a goddamn thing about Lou.
13:18All right, Sam. Let's see what we can find on Lou.
13:22Sony further clarified with, quote, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can
13:27continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide, end quote.
13:33This move was made after a record year of profits generated from Ghost of Yote,
13:38MLB The Show 25, and Death Stranding 2 on the beach, a proclamation Sony had made to its staff
13:44back in December 2025. So yeah, we made a ton of money, but we want more money.
13:49Go. Your father can't know you were here.
13:53What's the greediest decision Sony has done in your book? Let us know down in the comments,
13:58and don't forget to subscribe to Mojo Plays.
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