PlayStation

The group legal action, led by consumer rights champion Alex Neill, could see almost nine million gamers compensated.

It claims Sony PlayStation breached competition law, imposing unfair terms and conditions on games' developers and publishers, and driving up prices.

"The game is up," said Ms Neill. Sony PlayStation has yet to comment.

The unprecedented move follows complaints that the game has been riddled with bugs and glitches, and is prone to crashes.

Microsoft later said it would also refund any dissatisfied Xbox players.

Developer CD Projekt Red has promised to issue patches to improve the game for those who do not return it.

It’s unclear when Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) plans to return the game to the PlayStation Store.

Its developer said the web-slinger will be available as downloadable content (DLC) next year on one platform only.

The game will be released on 4 September across several platforms including PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Fans have suggested the move will see many players missing out on the game's full experience.

Sony has owned the movie rights to Spider-Man since 1999, and a video game headlined by the web-slinger - Marvel's Spider-Man - was a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2018.

It's the biggest event of its kind in the world with a prize pool of nearly $24m (£18.4m) and is hosted by Valve.

Sixteen teams, with players from all over the world, are competing in the season climax for online battle arena game Dota 2.

For many of them the prestige of lifting the trophy at this ultra-competitive event is far more important than the cash.

Alex "machine" Richardson is Dota 2's answer to Gary Lineker and has been hosting the live stream of the group stages, which are taking place in Seattle.

The news emerged from the D23 expo being held in Anaheim this weekend, and was accompanied with the upload of a teaser clip to YouTube earlier today (August 16).

The clip revealed that the console will be adorned with a profile shot of Darth Vader, while Playstation's official blog also added that the limited edition bundle will include a custom 500GB PS4 system (CUH-1200 series) and Dualshock 4 Wireless Controller.