Sony has been forced to revoke a PS Store game license in Australia a year after the title went on sale, sparking furore. Hotline Miami games are banned in the country because of content that the Australian Classification Board (ACB) deems unacceptable, but somehow, Hotline Miami 2 was made available for purchase last October.
Hotline Miami 2 PS Store game license revoked from players’ libraries, refunds issued
Numerous threads have popped up on Reddit, expressing frustration over the matter. Two different versions of Sony’s emails to customers are being shared. One email addresses those who claimed the game via PS Plus Extra, and the other addresses those who actually purchased the game from the PS Store.
Players are understandably upset with both Sony and the ACB. Hotline Miami games were never approved for release in Australia, so it’s unclear why Sony made it available to players in the country last year. It also beggars belief that it took one year for ACB to step in and for Sony to fix the blooper.
Though players have been issued refunds, the move is quite concerning and loops us back to the debate that digital games cannot be owned and are merely licenses that can be revoked anytime.