Sony sued over Killzone: Shadow Fall's graphics!

Article

Sony Computer Entertainment America has been hit with a lawsuit alleging "deceptive marketing" of Killzone: Shadow Fall because the PlayStation 4 game's multiplayer mode does not run at the resolution advertised.

The suit, filed by California resident Douglas Ladore in Northern District California court, alleges that Sony advertised Killzone: Shadow Fall would run at native 1080p resolution but "used a technological shortcut that was supposed to provide 'subjectively similar' results."

In March, Eurogamer's Digital Foundry analyzed Shadow Fall's graphics and reported that the PS4 game's multiplayer component runs at 960 by 1080 resolution — as opposed to 1920 by 1080, or 1080p resolution — with a "high-quality temporal upscale."

The lawsuit alleges that Sony advertised — through videos, its official website, social media and Killzone's retail packaging — would offer 1080p graphics. "Unfortunately, Sony's marketing and on-box representations turned out to be nothing more than fiction," the lawsuit says.

In the wake of Digital Foundry's report, Killzone developer Guerrilla Games took to its official website to explain its technical solution for Shadow Fall's multiplayer graphics.

"In both [single-player] and [multiplayer], Killzone: Shadow Fall outputs a full, unscaled 1080p image at up to 60 [frames per second]," producer Poria Torkan wrote. "Native is often used to indicate images that are not scaled; it is native by that definition.

"In Multiplayer mode, however, we use a technique called 'temporal reprojection,' which combines pixels and motion vectors from multiple lower-resolution frames to reconstruct a full 1080p image. If native means that every part of the pipeline is 1080p then this technique is not native."

Torkan went on to explain how temporal reprojection works.

"When up-scaling an image from one resolution to another, new pixels are added by stretching the image in X/Y dimension," he said. "The values of the new pixels are picked to lie in between the current values of the pixels. This gives a bigger, but slightly blurrier picture.

"Temporal reprojection is a technique that tracks the position of pixels over time and predicts where they will be in future. These 'history pixels' are combined with freshly rendered pixels to form a higher-resolution new frame."

The lawsuit alleges that "'temporal reprojection' is not the 'native 1080p' that Sony promised" and that Sony has not updated its packaging and marketing to reflect the game's actual resolution. Class allegations in the suit include negligent misrepresentation, false advertisement, unfair competition and fraud in the inducement. The amount sought in the suit exceeds $5,000,000.

The suit was filed by law firm Edelson PC, which hit Sony and publisher Electronic Arts with a class action suit in 2011. Attorneys for the firm, then known as Edelson McGuire, filed a putative nationwide class action lawsuit after Sony and EA promised a free copy of Battlefield 1943 to PS3 owners who purchased Battlefield 3, then failed to deliver the extra game.

Polygon has reached out to SCEA seeking comment on the suit.

Well, we know the real name of one member here. Who is it? Come clean.

Also, this will get tossed out.

Yeah, I have a feeling this will get thrown out

mmm yes as you say they are on the record with an apology regarding a lack of precision in their language when describing the rendering pipeline of multiplayer. so they've already admitted some wrongdoing.

i have no idea what sort of traction a lawsuit like this will gain, my guess is not very much. still though, interesting.

It will be thrown out.

This things are getting pathetic. Maybe I should sue ubisoft for downgrading watch dogs and the horriblr PC optimization. -_-

What a waste of time. This will get tossed out.

They served my coffee too hot at Dunkin Donuts

I'm suing

People have too much time on their hands.....although Sony did deceive people, not worthy of a lawsuit.

Lawsuits awaits.

It'll get tossed out. Though, it's raising awareness of how big companies like Sony will easily deceive for monetary gains. (Which company wouldn't?)

e.g. - "The world of Watch Dogs comes alive on PS4 with the best graphics on any console and exclusive missions found only on PlayStation, Hack everything as you make your way through Chicago's underground as you experience Watch Dogs in a way that only PS4 can provide, at 60 Frames Per Second in 1080p."

Well the definition of "native" and "1080p" are both ambiguous anyway.

Why can't people sue for things like GFWL and lying about supporting it? You can never get banned from it and that's why Dark Souls is overrun by hackers.

theyll just give him his 60$ back in exchange for his game.

Ryse didn't lie about it's resolution. Graphics King so far this gen!

But Crysis 3 looks better.

I guess people have sued for far less and won. Apple for rounded edges for example.

As far as current Consoles go. ;)

judge will take one look at it and toss it

Then, you shouldn't be flaunting it. :/

Apple have a massive lawyer team and tons of cash.

Stupid, dumb, ridiculous, preposterous, unfounded, asinine, foolhardy, etc.

People these days!!

What is it with the lawsuit culture in America?

Do people ACTUALLY care about this resolution BS? I thought that was just a fanboy wars thing,

Justice system FTW am I right.

I hope he wins because they did lie.

Let's clog the legal system just a little bit more....

My prediction, it gets settles out of court and sony gives everyone that purchased killzone a free game or something as compensation.

It's going to get tossed.

Whoever has the biggest pockets wins.

Is this not just the same as last gen? On the back of the game cases, they said that the game could run at 720P or 1080P but most of them didn't.

This will get tossed so fast. 5 million is over kill.

Sony lying to customers about the graphical capabilities of a killzone game? thats never happened before......

5 million is way to much for this type of lawsuit. This lawsuit may also be thrown out.

5 million pfft ha ha, what a idiot. This lawsuit is such a waste.

@Gamerno6666: This things are getting pathetic. Maybe I should sue ubisoft for downgrading watch dogs and the horriblr PC optimization. -_-

So much agreed. Does the game look and play well? I have not had a problem with graphics since like genesis. Maybe its because I am a part of the 'pong' beginners. We never imagined games would look like they did on ps2 much less ps3/360. Now this is a clear indication of bitch ass.

This is unsettling.. i guess cow obsession over resolution actually extends outside of system wars too...

Now if only someone could have sued Microsoft for all those systems that red ringed.

Serves them right the fucking liars.

Anyone who does this shit should be class-actioned down!

What we're we talking about again....

lol, people will sue over anything.

While i do think this lawsuit is stupid, i can see why they would sue.

There is no consequences for companies stretching the truth in ads so companies do it all the time. Then, people that sue because of it are laughed at........like i just did lol.

These companies need to be held accountable by SOMEBODY, whether that be an independent board or it has to be cleared BEFORE airing.

Its not fair to the consumer to just allow these companies to say just about anything in ads. So yea, i get the lawsuit, but it is still stupid.

I got a check from a Sketchers class-action law suit. I guess they made a claim their shoes would tone you up. I think I bought a pair of Shape-ups to wear to Disney.

I bought for comfort...got a check for 44 dollars.

Is this a joke

@HalcyonScarlet: No its just the I want easy money way. I bet this gets settled and not thrown out!! It has the merit, Sony knowing lied about the resolution, used false advertising, and did so to make money and gain an edge over their competition.

This person can easily say the went out and purchased the PS4, game and accessories all because of those claims. The 5mil should never be seen but depending on case and how much Sony really knew in covering the resolution and lying they could be punished with the punitive damages, but I more so see this settling at least for the cost of everything the person bought and maybe some lawyer fees

Only in America

I'm suing Valve for Half-Life being overrated.

Yep.. You lie to Americans... Expect your wallet to be lighter.

Here's a hint...Don't lie.

EDIT: Funny thing is you act like this protection is a bad thing? This lawsuit is BS.. think about the lawsuits were corporations killed hundreds of people.

You can only hurt these giant douches one way. In their checkbook. Sounds like a good thing to me?

I should sue Sony for making PS4 more awesome than I thought it was going to be.

Don't!!! This 5 million might bankrupt them already damnit!

Really? Americans are the reason why we have all these stupid warning messages on everything you buy. And this is just another stupid lawsuit, the game actually runs at 1080p, but it upscales the horizontal lines in multiplayer mode. Why not sue Microsoft for having 1080p on all they're X360 games when it's just upscaled from 640p - 720p, or whatever the native res is.