EA Sued For Shutting Down Online Games Too Quickly
from the shall-we-play-a-game? dept
Electronics Arts continues to suffer from a case of fans-hate-us-itis. Wonderfully hilarious mishaps like the SimCity debacle, calling their critics homophobes, and simply shutting down social media games without refunding the money for in-app purchases culminated in the game publisher obtaining the coveted Worst Company In America award...again. With all that having happened in the last year or so, executives at EA are probably thinking the same thing I think when I wake up on the bathroom floor at 4am on a Sunday with the dog looking at me like she's trying to figure out if I'm dead or not: surely this is rock bottom and it can only get better from here.Well, no it can't. Not for me and not for EA either, now that a federal class action suit has been filed against the company for falsely suggesting in the marketing for their EA Sports titles that online play would last a lot longer than it actually does.
Justin Bassett claims he bought several sports-themed games for Xbox 360 for about $59.99 each, relying on Electronic Arts' representation that the games were enabled for unlimited, online play. But the games were available for only a limited time, he says.Now, I don't know if it counts as a conflict of interest that I play a ton of sports games and also find it massively annoying when I can't beat 14 year old Russian children anymore because EA shut down the servers, but I figured I'd disclose that anyway. The fact is that marketing material for these games at the very least gives no indication for how long EA will allow online play and at worst vaguely insinuates that there is no predetermined time limit. Certainly most owners of sports titles don't purchase them every single year, so a time limit of a calendar year seems ridiculous sans a strong indicator that that's the plan. As such, the suit alleges a host of wrong-doings.
"Had plaintiff known at the time that he would not be able to play the products online for a certain amount of time, he would not have purchased the products or paid the price he paid for the products," Bassett claims.
"Consumers frequently rely on labels in making purchase decisions. Here, plaintiff and the other class members reasonably relied to their detriment on defendant's misleading representations and omissions. Defendant's misleading affirmative statements about the capability of online play for the products obscured the material fact that defendant failed to disclose about the limited nature of its online support for the products."Nobody is suggesting that EA has to keep their online play servers going indefinitely, but reasonable should mean reasonable. There may be some folks out there that buy Madden every year, but most do not. They update their rosters, either on their own or with help, and keep playing that title for 2-4 years. Is a 3 year online play window really unreasonable? And if they weren't going to support online play for that long, shouldn't EA disclose that in their advertising and/or packaging?
Bennett seeks compensatory, statutory and punitive damages for consumer law violations, false advertising, unfair competition, and breach of warranty.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: expectations, lawsuits, online games
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
MOAR MUNNY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.quakeservers.net/quakeworld/servers/so=8/
It was a different world back then though. Making games in the old'en days used to be about "having fun" and "giving the customers what they want".
Now all we have is companies like EA that, "maximize profits", "buy all 5 DLC packs to unlock the complete game", and "we reserve the right to shut-down servers with 30 days notice".
It's pretty much why I quit playing video games. Pretty much all the reasons above, plus the gameplay sucks in newer games compared to the originals.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Did I mention all the paid items that effect gameplay are obtainable by regular playing? And it even says on the purchase page that all spent platinum credits will be refunded if there is a reset going out of beta!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
That said, ID is probably the most open source friendly developer when it comes to games. Game servers? Here, run your own... Here, take the source code if you want to run the server on Linux. Oh, we're releasing a new game engine, so we're open sourcing our previous game engine.
EA had a good run of money grabbing. After Simcity, I'm sure as hell staying away from anything EA. As for ID, I've got 5 copies of Quake 3, and 1 of each of every other game they've released since I started earning my own cash... and will continue to support their efforts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
or try alternate methods
maybe im asking too much but well that is kind of fan service too. :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That is to say either 95 years or 70 years after I die.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just saying, they need money for all those lawyers fees and sanctions...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: i had all the sims game when sims4 came out i bought it and i had to use origin
origin is a micro managing toOL used by ea games to control the games, i had to bUy a new computer because it got hacked while i was online with ea techsupport trying to get help with Sims4 digital deluxe EA GAMES IS THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO GAMING
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Credit where credit is due.
Damn, I can't beat those 14 year old Russian children, you must be pretty good.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Really? I would certainly suggest that, and unless the marketing materials made it clear that online play was limited-time, that ought to be the law if it isn't already.
$59.99 is a lot of money; I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect the servers to stay up indefinitely unless there's a clear (not buried in the EULA) indication otherwise.
(It'd be fine I suppose if years later when there are few players anymore, the company shut the servers down but released the server source code so people could keep playing.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Almost sounds like the problem originates from the fans, which is, of course, false.
The problem is that EA continues to follow general business policies akin to son-of-a-bitch'ery.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cunt
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
For the win.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EA customers DESERVE all the pain they get
Given that this has been proven over and over and OVER again by EA's own actions, I don't blame them: they're just who they are. I blame the idiots who keep giving EA money and expecting different results.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: EA customers DESERVE all the pain they get
even discounting that EA has a monopoly in sport games
want to play with oficial players too bad you need to go with EA i have seen some good soccer games but the names god the names ruined the experience
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: EA customers DESERVE all the pain they get
My roommate has one EA (Battlefield 3) not because it's a particularly good game but because a friend of hers invested time and energy into the game and it's one of the things they do together. So even when we know EA is shit, social pressure can (or at least has in this case) pulled new customers in.
EA wasn't evil to begin with. It was corrupted from within by greed and fruits of their prior successes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Never Used the Origin Service!
That registration was converted to an Origin Account without my permission. I have never logged on or into it.
Because of what EA has done with requirements for OnLine DRM, I no longer ( Play / Buy ) EA's newer tittles.
Will play the older ( OffLine / Single Player ) games on occasion.
Now I am getting e-mails from the Origin service demanding that I update the contact info! No thanks, they can keep their spam.
Kill the Servers?
If they want to kill the servers, they need to release a "standalone" version of the game, or a ( Public / LAN Party ) type server program to the community. Or make the "standalone" version able to function as a replacement for EA's servers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I think EA's going for business suicide in the worst possible way ever....
Killed by massive consumer backlash...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I, too, refuse to use Origin
Won't go there. Origin = Spyware.
EA needs to burn for the betterment of the industry.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If EA wants to force everyone to use their servers...
One year for a $60 game is odious, unless it's paid at $5 a month.
EA is really having a bad year. I can't say I feel anything but pure seething schadenfreude for it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That's the way it was before AAA got greedy.
This was the standard for a while, either to allow someone to launch a listen server while they played, or an independent dedicated server. Then, thanks to the MMO revolution we got a number of AAA companies that decided to force multiplayer to rely on company servers (or even later, singleplayer), and so they'd refuse to include end-user server support at all.
This is the first time we've seen in court a case that acknowledges that publishers have a responsibility to their end-users, especially when charging a not-insignificant amount for their games.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fuck EA
give them hell!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't perceive Techdirt as a soap opera, so I don't expect understanding each article to depend on having kept up and read the articles before. That's not what I want in a news site; I doubt that's what anybody wants in a news site.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If there is one thing you can trust about EA is that you can't trust them. They will screw as soon as the opportunity arrives (And if it doesn't arrive at the time they like to, they will make one).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 31st, 2013 @ 11:12pm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ea sucks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ea sucks and im horny
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
calm down ming sue ching chong ho
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Games
Thanks for sharing..
Free Online Games
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EA sucks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
online games
there needs to be more legal cases in the game world, so many publisher are screwing up players, lying to players, changing rules to cheat players, and so on. W3C is in the same boat as EA. lawsuit will be the only way to get game creators/publishers to honor their terms and conditions fairly to their customers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This CAS, now that it is proceeding, may have far-reaching implications
If this CAS rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it may set a precedent that a company that requires online activation will have to do so for an extensive length of time, or provide a patch (and indefinite support) that removes the activation requirement.
In the case of Big MS, they seem so be determined to provide such support, at least until the screaming stops.
In the case of Steam, they've committed to the cause, and allegedly have a plan-b patch on standby which will allow backups to be installed and run without phoning home if ever Valve fails. (No notice on what happens if EA offers them four billion dollars for the whole Steam franchise -- because four billion dollars).
But in regards to Origin and Uplay and any other we-don't-trust-you-because-pirates preloader gateways, those companies may quickly be discovering that they have some serious contingency planning to do to ensure all their games are supported indefinitely.
This also may inform future rulings regarded abandonware and lost franchises such as NOLF.
Because evil never dies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DeNA games
[ link to this | view in chronology ]