Bricked Consoles Spur Suit Against Sony & Square Enix
Bricked Consoles Spur Suit Against Sony & Square Enix
June 7, 2010
Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment of America have been hit with a class action lawsuit filed by a San Diego gamer upset over a glitch in Final Fantasy XIII that can cause PS3 consoles to freeze up and become useless.
The lawsuit, which was filed on the behalf of all similarly situated US owners of Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3, alleges that SCEA and Square have been so busy blaming each other for the bricked PS3s, that they haven't remedied the problem or repaired the bricked units (or are charging users for the repair).
The suit alleges numerous violations of California law, including the Unfair Competition Act, the Consumer's Legal Remedies Act, and that the systems breached express and implied warranties. In addition to the contractual and consumer law claims, the suit also pleads claims of negligence and unjust enrichment.
Interestingly, the 28 page complaint cites various posts on Sony's forums as evidence that Sony was aware of the brickings immediately after the Final Fantasy XIII launch.
At this time, neither Sony nor SCEA has commented on the lawsuit. A copy of the Complaint can be viewed here (PDF).
Dan Rosenthal is lawyer and analyst for the video games industry
A PUBLICATION OF THE ECA
SUBSCRIBE
LOGIN / REGISTER
Crispy Gamer
GamePolitics ShoutBox
Posted 09/07/10 at 11:20pm
PHX Corp: My Dog, sparky Just Passed away as of 12mid, of old age.
PHX Corp: My Dog, sparky Just Passed away as of 12mid, of old age.
Posted 09/07/10 at 07:45pm
PHX Corp: @cheater I took it to the back so everyone can point and laugh at his team rocket style quest(Which fails Often)
PHX Corp: @cheater I took it to the back so everyone can point and laugh at his team rocket style quest(Which fails Often)
Posted 09/07/10 at 01:48pm
E. Zachary Knight: Indie developers are being strong armed by the S. Korean rating system to get their games rated.
E. Zachary Knight: Indie developers are being strong armed by the S. Korean rating system to get their games rated.
Posted 09/07/10 at 12:05pm
Andrew Eisen: I disagree that it's sexist. I think she's reading a bit too much into it. That said, while the story in and of itself is fine, even good, the writing is atrocious.
Andrew Eisen: I disagree that it's sexist. I think she's reading a bit too much into it. That said, while the story in and of itself is fine, even good, the writing is atrocious.
Posted 09/07/10 at 09:19am
ZippyDSMlee: BearDogg-X:Fusion was a bit meh so you know...
ZippyDSMlee: BearDogg-X:Fusion was a bit meh so you know...
Posted 09/06/10 at 10:45am
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: By the way, one video is their review, and the other is the talkabout. I posted the 2nd.
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: By the way, one video is their review, and the other is the talkabout. I posted the 2nd.
Posted 09/06/10 at 10:44am
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: I don´t think she even played Other M properly. She was more in a rant than in a review.
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: I don´t think she even played Other M properly. She was more in a rant than in a review.
Posted 09/06/10 at 10:22am
BearDogg-X: The person that wrote the review is an idiot, for lack of a better word. Without spoiling, did she even play Metroid Fusion?
BearDogg-X: The person that wrote the review is an idiot, for lack of a better word. Without spoiling, did she even play Metroid Fusion?
Posted 09/06/10 at 09:12am
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: According with G4, Metroid Other M is sexists because Samus recieves orders from a man
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: According with G4, Metroid Other M is sexists because Samus recieves orders from a man
Posted 09/06/10 at 02:35am
ZippyDSMlee: Meh over rated. So I was at dragon con.
ZippyDSMlee: Meh over rated. So I was at dragon con.
Posted 09/05/10 at 04:01pm
BearDogg-X: Adding to PHX Corp's link to the Salt Lake Tribune's opinion piece, it was written by Christopher Ferguson and it also urges Utah AG Mark Shurtleff to sign an amicus brief opposing California.
BearDogg-X: Adding to PHX Corp's link to the Salt Lake Tribune's opinion piece, it was written by Christopher Ferguson and it also urges Utah AG Mark Shurtleff to sign an amicus brief opposing California.
Posted 09/04/10 at 11:55pm
C. Aaron Browbowski Jr.: no way they euthanized a sick whale with c4, thats like the obama healthcare plan for the world, no i'm just kidding, let him bankrupt america :D
C. Aaron Browbowski Jr.: no way they euthanized a sick whale with c4, thats like the obama healthcare plan for the world, no i'm just kidding, let him bankrupt america :D
Posted 09/04/10 at 10:30pm
PHX Corp: PSA: The ECA forums(and GP website) are Not a Ad Toilet, plz do not Drop your Pants and poop out an ad on it(I'm going to end up Getting in trouble for a Toilet Joke)
PHX Corp: PSA: The ECA forums(and GP website) are Not a Ad Toilet, plz do not Drop your Pants and poop out an ad on it(I'm going to end up Getting in trouble for a Toilet Joke)
Posted 09/04/10 at 03:26pm
JDKJ: Does anyone recall exactly when Zippy came down out of the trees and mastered bi-pedalism?
JDKJ: Does anyone recall exactly when Zippy came down out of the trees and mastered bi-pedalism?
Posted 09/04/10 at 11:41am
PHX Corp: Attempt to revive video game law a waste of money opinion on salt lake tribune
PHX Corp: Attempt to revive video game law a waste of money opinion on salt lake tribune
Posted 09/03/10 at 04:31pm
Andrew Eisen: While a desire to conserve a particular marine ecosystem is a laudable goal, securing a 31-foot whale in the middle of it with a 10-ton anchor is probably not the best way to go about it.
Andrew Eisen: While a desire to conserve a particular marine ecosystem is a laudable goal, securing a 31-foot whale in the middle of it with a 10-ton anchor is probably not the best way to go about it.
Posted 09/03/10 at 04:01pm
ZippyDSMlee: Was thinking more of feedig dieing reefs ,ps life is suffering
ZippyDSMlee: Was thinking more of feedig dieing reefs ,ps life is suffering
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
Final Fantasy XIII seems to be becoming a case study in 'things going wrong with the industry'...... starting with a lesson you think companies would have figured out by now... 'if you are developing a game for one console and that console falls out of favor, do not try to salvage what you have done and paste it into another console. this never works'.
I do not think thats the problem sony offers decent cross console(360) development support. So I think its more to do with how fickle the hardware is.
Besides the BR lens which seems to be hunted by DREs besides that the system has some nasty firmware quirks.
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/
Yeah, Sony has its own sins to answer for here... a game, no matter how buggy, should not be able to brick your hardware unless it had something crazy like a firmware writer embedded in it.
Though I also in a way blame game universities. They have, in many ways, started teaching console development like a branch of PC development rather then the embedded system it is... plus they try to churn out devs as quickly as possible so they only barely touch on complex topics like writing thread-safe code or working in resource constrained enviroments. That was something that really annoyed me about coders complaining when the PS3 first came out.. they were completely unprepared for thinking in terms of multi-processing enviroments (that did not automagicly hide the details for them) and blamed Sony.
Uhh the 360 port has nothing to do with the lawsuit in hand.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
Lol, yeah, which I find hilarious. When FFXIII first came out, PS3ers were trying to kick the "console wars" into full gear by mocking the XBoxers for the ever so slightly lower resolution of CGI movies, and for having 3 discs instead of one.
But the XBox version of the game runs perfectly, and the PS3 version can kill your system. I just love the irony.
"I just love the irony."
At least this one can be avoided by simply not playing FFXIII, unlike the XBox 360 RRoD, which people are still getting...
Would Mr Rosenthal care to comment on the likely success of this case?
It's far too early for that. It is the kind of case that one could expect to settle, however, there is likely to be some wrangling between SCEA and SE as to who is primarily responsible for the damage. If one party is less or not responsible, I'd expect them to contest the issue.
-- Dan Rosenthal
Thank you Mr Rosenthal.
Well, no matter who loses in a Class Action Lawsuit, the only ones who win are the lawyers for both sides.
Anyway, where can I learn more about this problem?!? I just finished RDR last night and was getting ready to get back into my FFXIII game, then I see this article that it could brick my system? Where may I go for more info (I'm at work, so Google Fu isn't my friend at the moment. I can search when I get home).