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$5 million Square Enix class action suit detailed

By Matthew Peters, GameSpotPosted Aug 4, 2009 10:10 am PT

Amended complaint reveals FFXI gamer is suing Japanese publisher for millions in "suffered damages" after her characters were deleted during two-year hiatus from MMORPG.

On June 22, a class action lawsuit was filed against Square Enix accusing the publisher of unfair business practices, false advertisements, and undisclosed fees related to its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI. The lead plaintiff, Esther Leong of San Francisco, filed the complaint on behalf of over 100,000 fellow MMORPG subscribers and demanded a payment in "excess of $5 million" from the game publisher. Now, in an amended complaint filed Monday, the plaintiff revealed the specifics behind the generalized accusations outlined in the June 22 document.

How many gold bars would a Tarutaru have to stockpile to equal $5 million?

In the updated filing, Leong alleges that Square Enix failed to disclose all the fees associated with the MMORPG at the time of its purchase. Specifically, the complaint states that the publisher fails to disclose that players must continuously pay a monthly subscription in order to retain their in-game characters. The document alleges that the label on the retail box, which forewarns "additional online fees required," is too vague to qualify as a full disclosure of the game's supplemental costs. Currently, Final Fantasy XI costs $12.95 a month to play.

The plaintiff also asserts that the publisher failed to disclose other subscription information at the time of purchase. Namely, Square Enix did not reveal to its subscribers that if they did not pay every month, then their characters and game key would be permanently unusable after 90 days without payment. Moreover, in order to save the account before that 90-day mark, players had to pay a reactivation fee and subscription fees for each unpaid month.

However, PlayOnline's current member agreement--which all subscribers must agree to--states that all players must pay the game's recurring subscription fee due at the beginning of each month. If users fail to foot the bill at that time, their accounts are deactivated and can only be brought back by paying "all delinquent subscription fees" and applicable reactivation fees. Additionally, the agreement asserts that Square Enix is not liable for any damages resulting from an inability to access PlayOnline, including the loss of data.

According to the same document, Leong began playing Final Fantasy XI in 2005 and was a subscriber until August 2007, when she took a break from the game. When she returned to the game in 2009, she found that her account was invalidated because she hadn't paid the monthly fees. She now considers in-game characters she lost "suffered damages" and is suing for multimillion-dollar compensation.

Final Fantasy XI was released in October 2003 in North America, reaching 500,000 users worldwide by January 2004 through its PlayOnline service. Currently available on the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and PC, the game received its most recent expansion pack, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, last month.

438 Comments

  • by_my_scythe

    Posted Dec 13, 2009 11:10 pm PT

    keep in mind, that this is a "class action" lawsuit. This means that she isn't the only plaintiff on this case. There may be a list of 10,000 people for all we know. If that's the situation, then I wouldn't blame her for being the only whistleblower, or the one who screws it up for the rest of us, for that matter.

  • NearlyPrescient

    Posted Nov 17, 2009 8:53 pm PT

    @Schonertod is right on.
    I'm pretty sure they don't automatically delete characters once they've been inactive. a lot of people come back after long breaks and find that they are able to recover their accounts.
    having resubscribed recently, I'm pretty sure I was gone at least a year and neither had to pay a reactivation nor had any of my characters deleted. I think the reactivation fees are only when you close your account by canceling or removing the credit card instead of just closing a content ID.

  • texasjgc

    Posted Sep 22, 2009 4:10 pm PT

    Zr122 got it right. It says player is responsible for ADDITIONAL fees...Maybe she can't read? lol

  • HonorOfGod

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 7:24 pm PT

    i realy have no say in this but an old friend i knew playd FFO and it happend to him and a few more... realy wierd i mean why delete the chars in the first place? is it for the names or somthing? it realy must suck.. but you might as well just move on. Oh and the whole re activation thing is the bigest pile of SH!T!! EVER!!! the heck is that... if you dont play you dont play ok, if you wana play again just keep payin.. shouldnt be that way SE.

  • Splufbum

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 3:03 pm PT

    Eh, I sympathize, and wish it would change since I like to take breaks to keep in touch with the real world, but from a legal standpoint they've certainly covered themselves. Also, keep in mind it mentions that she's doing this on behalf of 100,000 other people. This means if she wins and they split it evenly, everyone would only get $50 (even less after legal fees have been dealt with) which is more than fair for a courtroom victory. While everyone's quick to affiliate this with other frivolous lawsuits where a person looks for a million dollars for not getting enough lettuce on their burger or something, it seems slightly different, and intended mostly to curtail SE's practices on the matter, not for personal compensation.
    So...yeah, I hope she wins, though I'm not optimistic about her chances. Personally I've taken breaks from it fairly frequently and wish I didn't have to worry about dropping a payment every few months to keep things active, but someone mentioned they don't even enforce the 90 day thing all that aggressively anymore anyway, so maybe there's hope after all. We'll just have to see if they try something similar with ffxiv.

  • MistofBrina

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 1:05 am PT

    I cant beleive that someone would make so much noise over an MMO. The ONLY good argument that I can think of for anyone to want to sue Square for deleating character data on FFXI is for how much time it takes to play that game and I suppose someone could wine about them "loosing that time in their life" or something like that. But no matter what it's silly, especally for so much money. Sounds to me like someone is trying to find "loop holes" in the Agreement policy for playing FFXI (and failing) I've played FFXI since it's release in 2004 [recently quit however]. I suppose I'd shed a tear if my character got deleated, but come on people!!! It's VIRTUAL reality! You can re-aquire everything from an old deleated game file, easier than the first time as well considering that you'd have some experience.

  • Schonertod

    Posted Aug 13, 2009 10:34 am PT

    Funny thing is i played this game for the longest time and i take like 2-5 months at a time off from it and have always come back to my chars still being there and never had to pay any back fees. Also if you read it they say after 3 months your char may be deleted meaning if your account happens to be seen unactive they go delete to save space for another account. get over like stated before you dont know veritual property.. I hope SE comes back and this chick pays for wasting peoples time and money.

  • zr122

    Posted Aug 12, 2009 3:55 pm PT

    The only reason I never got this game as that I read on the box (an this is back when it first came out, no expansions, etc) that it was a P2P game. I didn't want to shell out cash to buy the game and then more to play it. And besides, you have to give your credit card information to begin to play, so there's no reason she can sue for costs when they say "additional online costs" on the box. She should have done research, it's her fault entirely.

  • terra_ultmia

    Posted Aug 11, 2009 4:43 pm PT

    turn out that this person, who having bought and paid for this game knew this was a pay-to-play game. if she and several others had taken the pain of reading the agreement or looking over the manual once, you might find something wherein, things wouldn't be included. there a reason why ToA are long. to cover each and every loophole to prevent it from being exploit.

    and you can't really expect SE to save your character for 2 years when there are other purpose for the server space.

  • Clayer

    Posted Aug 11, 2009 11:23 am PT

    I didn't even last a whole month playing FF XI, yet even I knew of the 90-days of inactivity character wipe deal. The manual is there for a reason, right?

  • StarvingPoet

    Posted Aug 11, 2009 10:46 am PT

    People need to realize that you, as a player, do not own any virtual items in a virtual world. You only entitlement is that the company makes a reasonable effort to provide you with access to said virtual world whilst you are subscribed. Such is the law.

  • XShortGuy007

    Posted Aug 10, 2009 7:18 pm PT

    I think it's rather silly that a large company such as Square Enix can't store a few megabytes worth of information indefinitely for a person who takes a break from their game.

  • Glaber

    Posted Aug 10, 2009 6:27 am PT

    This is one of the reasons I don't play MMORPGs

  • sneakysnake128 posted Aug 10, 2009 2:12 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    sneakysnake128

    Posted Aug 10, 2009 2:12 am PT (hide)

    I hope she wins so that Squeenix will finally see the epic fail that is the FF MMO, namely FFXI and the future FFXIV.

  • TheTHCGamer

    Posted Aug 9, 2009 11:54 pm PT

    squar enix just better hope they were smart enough to have this in writing or have this displayed somewhere in the game. it would be stupid if they didnt because you have to be prepared for people who will sue over petty things like this.

  • GenkaiSIX

    Posted Aug 9, 2009 7:36 pm PT

    For some reason, it has always been known amongst my friends and I that if you discontinue your monthly payment plan for your character then it would be deleted after 90 days. I'm sure SquEnix has this statement filed away somewhere and will bust it out in court. People need to stop coming up with lawsuits like this, reminds me of something that would be filed against a fast food restaurant. I hope SquEnix counter sues her for everything she's got, there'd be some "suffered damages" for her.

  • akira900gt

    Posted Aug 9, 2009 5:17 pm PT

    i'm with Lothis on this one. i feel sorry for her losing her characters but it was entirely her fault from the sound of it. maybe i should sue SquareEnix for making such great RPG's and taking up hundreds of hours of my life. jking of course!

  • HmongXiongBoy

    Posted Aug 9, 2009 2:34 pm PT

    shes suing them because she wasnt able to pay them, maybe she should have read the manual, and i think that 5 million is way too much money, SE got the money but they would probably win the case

  • squall3773

    Posted Aug 9, 2009 1:04 pm PT

    This persons angry because they state they were never told.
    I remember purchasing FFXI when it came out fully knowing it would have a monthly cost. I read the manual and understood that after 90 days of inactivity everything would be lost. Saddened i brought it back, the store understood and thought it was crazy.

    Sure the whole thing is nuts, but its what SE decided to do and they have every right to do so.

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