Sony Wins 2026 'Shonky Award' for Worst Company Over Digital Ownership

Australian consumer group Choice has handed Sony its 'Shonky Award,' calling out the company for digital purchases that don't actually mean ownership and for removing content users already bought.

Well, this is one award Sony probably didn't want on its shelf. Australian consumer advocacy group Choice has handed the PlayStation maker a "Shonky Award" and a spot in its Hall of Shame — basically the corporate equivalent of the Razzie Awards. The honor is handed out each year to highlight what Choice calls the worst products and services around, and this time Sony took the crown.

If you're wondering what "shonky" means, it's Aussie slang for something shoddy, unreliable, or just plain dodgy — a mix of "shoddy" and "wonky." And Choice didn't mince words when announcing the result, saying the award went to "the company that asks us to pay to play, but doesn't let us actually own the content."

Here's the core of the complaint. According to Sony Interactive Entertainment, when you download a movie or game digitally instead of buying a physical disc, you don't actually own it. You're just buying a license to access that content through Sony's digital storefronts like the PlayStation Store. In an age of instant gratification, downloading something and jumping straight in feels incredibly convenient — but whether you'll still have access years down the line is another question entirely.

Choice pointed to two recent incidents that drove the point home. In June 2026, Sony announced its licensing deal with film production and distribution company Studio Canal was expiring in the UK and Europe. Users were then told that over 500 Studio Canal films would no longer be available to buy, rent, or watch — including movies they'd already purchased and stored in their digital libraries. Content people thought they owned forever was suddenly facing deletion. And just days after that news broke, while users were still processing the difference between "buying" and "licensing," Sony hit players with another blow.

Choice also took aim at Sony's decision to stop producing physical discs and shut down the PS3 and PS Vita digital stores, alongside the vanishing film content. The group pointed out that while the end-user license agreement (EULA) spells out the licensing rules, the PlayStation Store checkout process doesn't make it clear at all. The frequent and consistent use of the word "purchase" during checkout makes it easy for consumers to reasonably assume they're getting ownership — not just a license.

There's more. Choice noted that in this all-digital future, if the PlayStation Network goes down, you might not be able to download the games you paid for at all. PSN famously suffered a massive outage back in 2011 that lasted nearly a month. And worse, if your account gets compromised and permanently banned, your entire digital game library could go up in smoke with it.

Choice summed it up bluntly: under the current EULA, consumers can't truly guarantee access to the digital media they've licensed, and once physical discs disappear, they won't even have another option. In the end, as the group put it, "you'll own nothing." So what do you think — does buying digital still feel worth it to you?