Let’s delve into a rather baffling news story, shall we? Purveyors of gaming-related statues and merchandist Gaming Heads is claiming that Sony told them to destroy all of their existing PlayStation merch and are now directing customers to Sony in order to claim refunds.

Gaming Heads has been making videogame-related merchandise for around a decade and are no stranger to controversy. A quick browse through their Facebook page indicates that a lot of people have had issues with them over the years, including waiting years for products to be shipped or older statues reappearing on the website for double or even triple the price.

On their website, they posted an open letter declaring that Sony has decreed that Gaming Heads needs to destroy all existing PlayStation-related items. This includes a bunch of existing items such as The Last of Us 2‘s Ellie statue, God of War busts and more. It also includes pre-order items like the company’s upcoming Sly Cooper statue. The implication is that Sony has cancelled their licensing agreement, though Gaming Heads do not expressly say this, nor is there any indication of why the deal may have fallen apart.

But here’s where it gets weird. According to Gaming Heads, Sony’s mandate also says they cannot ship items that customers have already bought and paid for. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.

“They know you have paid your hard-earned money for items that are ready to ship to you or that are in production but unfortunately, after doing all that we can, they have told us not to ship your orders to you “ reads the open letter.

Gaming Heads also says that Sony, “has already received royalty payments from you on your orders that Sony PlayStation now wants us to destroy and not ship to you”.

Gaming Heads then goes on to say that all enquiries regarding refunds etc. should be directed to Judy Ward of Sony who handles Commercial Partnerships. Gaming Heads do not state anywhere that they will be handling refunds, offering credit or doing anything else to remedy the problem.

People are understandably unhappy with this and on Facebook there are numerous people pointing out that their contract for their items is with Gaming Heads, not Sony, and that Gaming Heads are legally the ones who must handle the issuing of refunds. But Gaming Heads is remaining steadfast in its views on Facebook, reiterating that customers should take it open with Sony. One of their repeated comments says, “As mentioned throughout these comments, we will do all that we can.

What want to make it perfectly cleat that it is SONY PlayStation’s decision to cancel Community members orders and to destroy their statues – not ours. We want to ship your order to you.

This is why we have asked Community members effected by SONY PlayStation’s decision to also contact SONY about their order to see what they will do for them as SONY PlayStation can make this right by:

(a) allowing us to ship their order; and

(b) returning the $$$ paid to them to the customers for whom they have now cancelled their orders.”

While Gaming Heads offers a vague platitude saying that they “will do all that we can” they do not mention refunding customers themselves.

The whole situation reads like a fever dream with Gaming Heads adamantly refusing to do right by their customers. Whatever happened between them and Sony, it’s Gaming Head’s legal obligation to deal with the issue and then seek recompense from Sony.

However, I find all of this a little hard to believe. Sony and Gaming Head’s relationship has been ongoing for nearly a decade, and it seems unlikely that Sony would suddenly pull out without some sort of inciting incident. It also seems peculiar that Sony would mandate that existing orders cannot be shipped to those who have paid for them.

Whatever happens going forward, though, it seems safe to bet that Gaming Heads has done major damage to its reputation, and could even find itself losing more licensing deals due to the handling of the situation.