“We are not making any profit from sales of the Overwatch Pink Mercy Skin” - Sony
Sony came under fire on social media yesterday after the company appeared to be taking a cut of the sales of an Overwatch skin being sold for charity.
On the PS4 sale page of the skin, the description says: “Blizzard Entertainment will donate 100% of the proceeds that it receives from Sony PlayStation.”
Over on Xbox One, the wording is slightly different: "Blizzard Entertainment will donate 100% of the purchase price for your purchase of the Pink Mercy skin on Xbox."
This subtle difference in wording makes it seem like not all of the proceeds will be going to the charity, if purchased on PlayStation. Of the £12.99 purchase, Sony says it is donating £10.12 to charity, but the reasons for this difference are not clear.
Once people started noticing it, fans started calling the publisher out on Twitter:
There has been some speculation that the discrepancy between the cost and the amount donated is to do with VAT, but Sony would not confirm this when asked.
Instead, the company provided VG247 with the following statement:
“We are not making any profit from sales of the Overwatch Pink Mercy Skin,” a representative of SIEE told us via email.
The charity proceeds are going to Breast Cancer Research.