Eligibility turns on specific purchases, not general PlayStation ownership. There are three buckets: active account with qualifying purchases, deactivated account with qualifying purchases, or no qualifying purchases at all. That last group receives nothing, regardless of how long they've been PlayStation customers.

To fall within the class, you must be a US resident who bought at least one qualifying digital game directly through the PlayStation Store between April 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023 (The Next Web). Physical disc purchases don't count. Neither do pre-April 2019 digital purchases.

The qualifying list covers more than 100 specific titles. Each had to clear two thresholds: at least 200 voucher redemptions through third-party retailers before April 2019, and a price increase of at least 50 cents on the PlayStation Store after Sony discontinued those sales (PCMag; The Next Web). Best Buy, GameStop, and Amazon all sold these game-specific download codes from 2006 until Sony pulled the plug in 2019. Per the complaint, after Sony cut off those third-party sales it raised PlayStation Store prices, forcing consumers to pay more than they otherwise would have what the complaint called "anticompetitive conduct designed to monopolize the PlayStation digital game market" (PCMag).

There is no catch-all for general PlayStation Store spending. If none of your purchases from that window appear on the qualifying game list, you are not covered.

To verify your eligibility:

1. Visit psndigitalgamessettlement.com and locate the qualifying game list.
2. Pull up your PlayStation purchase history for April 1, 2019 through December 31, 2023. Sony's account management portal includes transaction history tools that let you filter by date range.
3. Cross-reference your purchases against the qualifying list. One matching title likely means you're covered.

What documents to have ready: For deactivated accounts especially, gather order confirmation emails, bank or credit card statements showing PlayStation Store charges, or any Sony purchase documentation from that window. Active account holders generally won't need paperwork since Sony identifies them through internal purchase records, but having documentation available is useful if your credit never shows up.

Once you've confirmed eligibility, everything depends on whether your PSN account is active or deactivated.

If your PSN account is active:

1. Confirm at least one qualifying purchase using the steps above.
2. Do nothing else. Sony will use its own records to identify eligible accounts and distribute credits directly to PSN wallet balances after the October 15, 2026 final approval hearing (CNET; USA Today). No claim form is required.
3. After October 15, check your PSN wallet balance. If you believe you qualify and no credit appears after any processing period announced on the settlement site, contact the settlement administrator using the details below.

If your PSN account is deactivated, act before August 27, 2026:

Users with inactive accounts cannot receive wallet credits automatically. They must contact the settlement administrator with qualifying purchase documentation and a current mailing address to receive a cash payment instead (PCMag; The Next Web). "Qualifying purchase information" means documentation showing you bought a specific title from the qualifying list during the eligible window: an order confirmation email, a bank or card statement, or similar Sony purchase records. August 27 is a hard cutoff; miss it and the cash option is gone.

Settlement administrator contact (PCMag):

• Phone: (877) 777-9145
• Email: [email protected]
• Mail: PSN Digital Game Settlement, P.O. Box 173046, Milwaukee, WI 53217

Preliminary approval is not final approval. The October 15 hearing is where Judge Martínez-Olguín signs off permanently. If anything changes before then, psndigitalgamessettlement.com is where updated information will appear first.

• July 2, 2026 Opt-out deadline. This date has passed. Class members who didn't opt out by then are bound by the settlement if it receives final approval and cannot sue Sony separately over these claims (PCMag).
• August 27, 2026 Deadline for deactivated-account holders to contact the settlement administrator for a cash payment (PCMag; The Next Web). The only active deadline remaining. For most readers, this is the one that matters.
• October 15, 2026 Final court approval hearing. If approved, Sony distributes wallet credits to eligible active accounts after this date (USA Today; PCMag).

Credits won't land in wallets on October 15 itself. The hearing is where the court signs off; distribution follows sometime after, with a processing period that could run weeks or longer. Check the settlement site for any timeline Sony announces post-hearing.

If a reasonable interval passes and no credit appears, work through this checklist before contacting anyone:

• Confirm you're checking your PSN wallet balance, where credits from this settlement are expected to be issued (CNET).
• Verify your purchase actually appears on the qualifying game list. A PlayStation Store purchase from that window isn't automatically qualifying; the specific title has to be on the list.
• Make sure the account you're checking is the same account used for the original purchases. If you've ever had multiple PSN accounts, check all of them.

If you've worked through all three and still see nothing, contact the settlement administrator by phone or email. Have your PSN username, purchase documentation, and the specific qualifying title you believe you purchased ready when you do.

The math is straightforward. $7.85 million across roughly 4.4 million eligible accounts, minus up to 25% for legal fees and costs, produces a per-person estimate around $1.77 before final deductions, per The Next Web consistent with reporting that individual payouts will amount to "a few dollars each" at most. Treat any specific figure as a rough guide; actual administrative costs and the final confirmed count of eligible accounts will shift the number.

The form of the payout matters as much as the amount. Compensation arrives as PSN wallet credit, spendable only on Sony's own store. That structure already drew a judicial rejection. A year ago, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín declined to approve an earlier version of the settlement, describing PlayStation wallet credits as a "coupon settlement" a form of relief courts routinely disfavor because it cycles money back into the defendant's ecosystem rather than putting genuine compensation in plaintiffs' hands (GamingBolt). She also faulted the motion for failing to show what class members might reasonably have recovered at trial, a basic showing required to evaluate whether a settlement is actually fair to plaintiffs (GamingBolt).

A revised proposal eventually cleared the preliminary approval bar, but the payout method is still PlayStation Store credit. For anyone who no longer uses the platform, that credit has no practical value which is precisely why the deactivated-account cash option exists, and why the August 27 deadline matters.

Bookmark psndigitalgamessettlement.com for any changes to terms or timeline. The US case may be approaching its end, but Sony faces a much larger version of the same underlying challenge in the UK, where potential liability has been estimated at up to $2.7 billion (PCMag). The legal scrutiny of closed digital storefronts isn't going anywhere, even if this particular case is winding down.