A statement released from merchandise company Gaming Heads has revealed a request that all existing PlayStation related items are to be destroyed.
The full statement has been released via the Gaming Heads social media feeds, as well as appearing as a pop-up when visiting their website.
Open letter to the SONY PlayStation collecting community@GamingHeads @Naughty_Dog @SonySantaMonica @SuckerPunchProd @PlayStation @fromsoftware_pr @insomniacgames
— Gaming Heads (@GamingHeads) September 26, 2023
#thelastofus2 #TheLastOfUs #thelastofuspart2 #RatchetAndClank #slycooper #jakanddaxter #jak3 #GodofWar #Bloodborne pic.twitter.com/c9u1NaW2Xy
The request is literally to entirely demolish any existing stock, regardless of its status. Prototype stage? Destroyed. Half built? Smash it. Ready to ship to an eager customer? Too bad, it has to be disposed of. It’s a positively nuclear request from the gaming giant, and it stinks for all consumers that are fans of physical merchandise. It can’t be a decision that came lightly – and the reasoning for this is frustratingly unclear.
The statement is incredibly vague about what the actual reasoning behind this order is, leading many commenters to question what the full story might be. Some have even responded that the partnership has likely been terminated due to ongoing issues with Gaming Heads production of items, which have had numerous delays and QA issues when released.
It feels like here is missing some information. Maybe Sony isn’t satisfied with the recent quality of the statues. Look at the statue of Ellie and Joel. It is horrible. And often when a figure comes, some parts are broken (my Elisabeth statue from bioshock had broken hair).
— Cashew (@CrunchyCashewz) September 26, 2023
Looking at the reviews of this company… i can see why sony would want to distance themselves from it. Looks to me like they are super unprofessional and do dodgy payments, take years to even ship… go buy figures from F4F instead
Its not sonys duty to refund, its gaming heads— LegendaryGriffin (@LegendOfGriff) September 26, 2023
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The excruciating lack of detail is not helped by the personal-tone of the statement from Gaming Heads, where the piece acts like a call to action for people to reach out to Sony in support. This isn’t unheard of in the modern world of social media and global communities, but Sony as a company has been very supportive of companies that make use of their IP in the past – so this door-slam of an agreement ending feels very uncharacteristic of them.
Gaming Heads has also washed their hands of dealing with customer dissatisfaction, once more curiously pushing any of their existing customers (because even paid-for items are to be destroyed) to contact Sony directly in hopes of a refund. The reasoning for this is that royalties paid to Sony for an item can’t be retrieved; and while I am no expert on mercantile responsibility it doesn’t read as a logical process for such a situation. The exact quote:
Yes, SONY PlayStation has already received royalty payments from you on your orders that SONY PlayStation now wants us to destroy and not ship to you.
At this time we have no statement from Sony on the reasoning behind this abrupt termination – but we will be monitoring how things play out. Having one (admittedly flimsy) side of the story is a little perturbing – many are justifiably asking for further detail, especially for those that are out of pocket.
Are you familiar with Gaming Heads products? Do you have any insight on how this came to be? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
