Katarzyna Petru
Sony is once again igniting the internet, and not in a positive sense. The recent complaints from PlayStation players have caused a real storm — it's about one of the most popular indie games in history, Stardew Valley, which… has started to disappear from users' accounts. And this is without their involvement.
“Refund accepted”. The problem is that no one returned anything
Some players who purchased Stardew Valley digitally — often years ago, some even through cross-buy — recently received emails informing them of a supposed refund request. Sounds like a classic mistake? Well, the consequences are much more serious.
Upon logging into their account, players discover that:
their purchased copy of the game has disappeared,
it has been replaced by a version marked as linked to PlayStation Plus,
it is no longer visible in their library as “owned”.
The worst part? No one refunded anything. Sony somehow “considered” this to be the case — and took away the game that people had paid for.
PS Vita is holding up well, but only because the game was downloaded earlier
Interesting thread: the version for PS Vita in many cases… still works. If it was ever downloaded, it can be launched without issue. But does that mean that new purchases have been blocked? For now, no one can confirm this — it seems more like the effect of a previous installation rather than actual availability. Players rightly ask: how is it possible that a physically downloaded game works, but its "rights" on the account suddenly disappear?
“Absurd”. “Chaos”. “Lack of respect for buyers”. The internet is leaving no stone unturned on Sony
On Reddit and X, a storm has erupted. Many describe the situation as absurd, others as dishonest. Especially as comparisons with other platforms are overwhelmingly unfavourable for Sony. An example? Xbox users remind us that titles from the old Games with Gold programme are theirs forever — even if the programme has long since ceased to exist.
On PlayStation, however, players often:
lose access to games they have purchased,
see them as assigned to PS Plus,
and after the subscription expires, are left with nothing.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg
For some time now, there has been another irritating issue in the PlayStation ecosystem: if you have a game as part of PS Plus Extra, you cannot purchase another version of it — even if it is a premium edition, extended or with DLCs.
Example? Returnal. Players wanted to buy a better edition, but… they couldn't. The system deemed that since they had it in PS Plus, then "why bother". The situation with Stardew Valley only deepens the impression that the chaos in managing digital licenses on PlayStation has spiralled out of control.
What will Sony do about this?
Sony is officially silent. Players are waiting for an explanation, and the pressure is mounting with every hour. If the company does not quickly rectify the situation and restore legally purchased games to users, this crisis could be one of the most serious in PlayStation history in terms of trust in digital purchases.
