Judge rules against SONY, allows class action suit on KZ:SF

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United States District Court Judge Edward Chen for the Northern District Court of California has ruled that a class action lawsuit related to Sony Computer Entertainment's Killzone: Shadow Fall will proceed. In August lead plaintiff Douglas Ladore filed a class action lawsuit against SCE claiming that the company lied about the graphics quality of Killzone: Shadow Fall for PS4 in its marketing materials, PR and public statements. He claims in his lawsuit that the game was advertised to have full 1080p high-definition resolution graphics, but it didn't measure up to those claims.

"Gamers quickly noticed and complained that Killzone's multiplayer graphics were blurry to the point of distraction," Ladore's complaint alleges.

Sony tried to get the lawsuit thrown out, arguing that its representations about the graphics weren't false; that Ladore didn't adequately plead reliance on any alleged misrepresentation; that the game doesn't fall under the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and that the "economic loss rule" bars Ladore's tort claim for negligent misrepresentation.

But Judge Chen rejected all but one of SCE's argument in its attempt to get the case dismissed. noting that the company's motion was "premised on an unduly narrow reading of plaintiff's complaint."

"The substantial majority of the arguments Sony raises in its motion to dismiss can be rejected for two simple reasons - either Sony's arguments ignore important factual allegations that are well pleaded in Ladore's complaint, or Sony's arguments require this court to construe the complaint in the light most favorable to Sony, rather than Ladore, who is entitled to the benefit of all reasonable inferences at this stage of the proceedings," Chen wrote.

Judge Chen did rule against Ladore's negligent misrepresentation cause of action, noting that the claim "inadequately pleaded under the economic loss rule since Ladore hadn't asserted any noneconomic losses stemming from his purchase of the game." Judge Chen gave Ladore 30 days to file an amended complaint.

I'm all for the usual SW idiocy about graphics but filling a lawsuit? Really?

Sue over the graphics?

Sue over it being a perfect example on how not to make a first person shooter.

Liars must be punished.

What? Seriously? does this guy have nothing better to do with his time than take a Lawsuit for something this Minor

"Gamers quickly noticed and complained that Killzone's multiplayer graphics were blurry to the point of distraction,"

Calling BS on that one, it would have to be Terribly Blurry For that to be the case and i have played it MP and it ain't that bad.

Bloke need to get himself a Girlfriend man.

Still wasn't a 6, though.

i would give it an 8 actually, a 6 is way too low when you look at the state of other games that have scored that

LOLzone

Oh good, someone finally sued them for making such a crappy game.

This is just silly

They didn't exactly lie, only if you want to split hairs, they just neglected to say what kind of 1080p it was.

People taking out Lawsuits over Minor crap like this is bad for everyone , not just SONY, imagine if people decided to Sue for all the 'ONLY on XBOX' games that turned out not to be.

He could of just returned the game got a refund and be done with it. Now he has to pay for legal fees.

But, but. The Order 1886 is 1080P. Will their be a lawsuit for that game next? Too funny. I'm surprised he didn't sue them for making another FLOP.

Why is it bad for everyone? No matter who it is, if it makes them think twice about not being clear, than it's a good thing. Sony could have been clear from the start about what sort of 1080p it was.

Would I have done it? No. But it's annoying when companies cherry pick things for marketing purposes and it turns out not to be the full story.

The Halol Killer.

Lems have no games so they've turned to the judicial system for entertainment.

lol, and the only game the cows are playing, is sales figures.

This wasn't a lem who sued them obviously. lol!! Obviously it was someone who owned a PS4 and who played the game. Some of Sony's fanbase are turning on them.

If Sony was sued for every lie they've made since introducing the original Playstation, Sony would have gone bankrupted a long, long time ago.

The fact that some neckbeard actually filed this crap, and a judge gave it the go ahead is insane. Makes you wonder why anybody would want to go into game development these days.

And we wonder why budgets are bloated and studios are going belly up? They have to have full legal departments 24/7 to deal with sht like this from gamers. Lets not get into the fact that they have to censor or cut content because of legal liability or controversy

If you don't like the game, trade it in and move on. I wouldn't be surprised if the Halo Collection is next on the neckbeard hit list.

This is just fucking stupid.

What's next? Somebody filling a lawsuit against 343i because Halo 2 Anniversary campaign isn't 1080p?

I'd actually love to see that.

That games been broken since forever and 3/43 Intelligence can't even figure out how to make the square peg go in the round hole.

that'll teach sony to lie

I smell a Master Chief and Ubi lawsuit incoming then..........

The suit was filed a while ago. Sony tried having it thrown out. judge said it can proceed but the plaintiff has 30 days to make adjustments. you can read the whole document but here is the shitty part that really annoyed me.

OK so plaintiff has a PS4 and purchased the game AFTER sony had come clean, hence no financial loss so he has to refile as a class action suit with people involved who purchased it prior to sony coming clean. Here is the kicker, Sony didn't deny that that had purposely lied, the proof is already there about the lying. They tried to get it dismissed by saying games aren't covered under anti-consumer laws because they aren't "goods"

Sony argues that Ladore’s CLRA claim (and UCL unlawful claim predicated on violation of

the CLRA) must be dismissed because Killzone is not a “good,” and therefore does not come within

the scope of the Legal Remedies Act. Mot. to Dismiss at 10. Sony is mistaken.

The CLRA prohibits “unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices

undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease of

goods or services to any consumer.” Cal. Civ. Code. § 1770(a) (emphasis added). The CLRA

defines “goods,” in relevant part, as “tangible chattels bought or leased for use primarily for

personal, family, or household purposes.” Cal Civ. Code § 1761(a).

Sony argues that software, software licenses and/or online [video] game features are not

“goods,” and therefore Ladore’s CLRA claim fails. As an initial matter, this argument ignores the

critical fact that Ladore did not simply buy or download (arguably) “intangible” software, or

otherwise play an online game. Rather, Ladore went to a brick-and-mortar store (Best Buy) where

he paid for and received a tangible product – namely the Killzone game disc, which came in a

Killzone box and was accompanied by various tangible pieces of documentation. As Judge Tigar

recently explained about “Norton Antivirus” computer software, “[a] consumer can purchase Norton

Antivirus in a store, pick it up in her hands, and carry it home. It is in that way the same as most

commodities considered to be ‘goods’ under the CLRA, and distinct from the sorts of commodities

that are considered not to be,” such as insurance or credit contracts. Haskins v. Symantec

Corporation, No. 13-cv-2834-JST, 2013 WL 6234610, at *9 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 2, 2013); see also

Perrine v. Sega of America, Inc., No. C 13-1962 JSW, 2013 WL 6328489, at *4 (denying a motion

to dismiss on basis that the video game “Aliens: Colonial Marines” is not a “good” for purposes of

CLRA).

Judge Tigar also correctly brushed aside Symantec’s contention (parroted by Sony here) that

“the fact that the software is delivered through a tangible medium is irrelevant, since the disc is

nothing but a physical mechanism for delivering a nonphysical right to use intangible software.”

Haskins, 2013 WL 6234610 at *9. The court emphatically rejected the argument:

[B]y slicing things that thinly, many of even the most tangible

commodities could be characterized as delivery mechanisms for the

transmission of intangible things. No one would seriously dispute that

a book is a ‘tangible chattel,’ despite the fact that the physical object

itself is merely a delivery mechanism for the transmission of

information. Insurance contracts and credit cards, in contrast, are not

delivery mechanisms; they are merely physical representations of the

parties’ intangible agreement. Consumers do not purchase software

discs or books to memorialize or prove the existence of an agreement;

they purchase the objects to possess and use them. As a physical

object purchased for a consumer’s use, a software disc is a tangible

chattel.

Id. The court concluded that in light of the CLRA’s direction that it “be liberally construed and

applied to promote its underlying purposes,” it could not hold that computer software, like the

Killzone video game here, is not a good under the CLRA, particularly where the software is

purchased in a physical medium, as opposed to downloaded from the internet.

Because people will start nitpicking like this all over the place and Nitpicking minor details to hell and back will become a Multi billion Dollar industry.

He could have just taken the game back and got a refund if he didn't like it, this Falls into the Category of Suing over 'silly things' it will Cost the Taxpayer because any sort of court costs the Taxpayer and the end Costs of this will be well above the complaints Merit.

This guys not interested in Defending consumer rights, hes looking for a TON of cash over a minor detail that most people would just shrug off.

Yes, SONY lied but it was such an insignificant Lie that it does not deserve this kind of attention.

'But it's annoying when companies cherry pick things for marketing purposes and it turns out not to be the full story.'

Which is every Advert you see on the TV, you look at any product and you will find it doesn't it do Something that the people who made it said it would or it doesn't do it as well as they say it does.

Mr sheen shines umpteen things clean my backside.

What should be made right is how badly 343 fucked up with the MCC and then how Microsoft refused to give refunds. They released a broken product.

So did Driveclub but holy shit that weather so pretty bro.

'They tried to get it dismissed by saying games aren't covered under anti-consumer laws because they aren't "goods"'

Thats terribly Anti consumer .But there Brief would have done anything to get them off the Hook, thats what hes paid for.

Sonys lies were going to catch up to them sooner or later. Maybe some Kaz gifs will lower the sentence.

So would Microsoft, don't kid yourelf

so...like how much will sony lose? 60$?

@mr-powers: well all they have to do is advertise it as it is. Not really a difficult thing is it? Sony are full of $hit and they deserve the lawsuits. Case in point five club. It's still not on PlayStation plus 13 months after being promised. Not even the watered down demo version. Or 2 months if you want to play the delay card.

Least it worked *looks at MCC*

Very stupid but if it stops companies from lying for marketing purposes then good stuff.

Microsoft aren't the ones being sued however. When is comes to the gaming Industry Sony has Microsoft beat by a mile when it comes to lying to everyone. So don't kid yourself.

*************************************************************************

You don't own an XB1 or MCC do you. MCC is pretty much fixed now. You can get into an online match in under 2 mins now. It didn't take a 1 year delay and two additional months to fix the problem either.

Remember when that Microsoft guy said all games on Xbox One are 1080p... class action law suit?

Graphic whores are kinda dumb.

Well that guy is gonna win a building now. Dunno what else Sony can give.

Ruling against Sony, in this instance, only means the suit wasn't dismissed. In actuality, the suit has yet to leave the starting block. Judge Chen acknowledged and accepted Sony's argument that the pleadings did not establish a claim of negligent misrepresentation and instead of dismissing the suit outright, the Judge basically allowed the plaintiff an opportunity to edit their complaint to satisfy the requirements for the suit to proceed.

TLDR version: It's as though no complaint was ever filed. All the burden is still on the plaintiff and this is still years from a resolution in their favor. In all reality, I anticipate the plaintiff will either voluntarily dismiss or settle (best case scenario for whoever it is).

7 > 6

i have little sympathy for Sony on this one. They made a SPECIFIC claim with a numerical value. If you're going to lie to the public, you have to be a little bit vague. That's the lesson here.

They shouldnt lie and falsely advertise their games. I hope this happens more and ushers in new rules against false advertising in the games industry.

Sony can't catch a break. First I hear about how they folded and cancelled their movie and now they will be punished for lying. Seems fitting for this unethical, second rate, dying company.

What next? Is someone going to sue Activision-Blizzard saying the pre-rendered WoW trailers are misrepresenting the actual game?

This is almost as bad as when McDonald's was sued for having hot coffee. I wish those in authority here in America had half a fucking brain.

Sony started off good but after hacks, flops, delays, cancellations, lawsuits, sexist ads, being hacked again, being exposed as racists, canceling movies and Xbox One outselling it when it mattered most, they ended 2014 with a whimper.

Not sure which is more sad; The fact that i remember that case or the fact that she actually won $2.9 million

i guess Sony is going to have to abandon their fake "1080p" campaign until they can actually back it up...makes sense.

its a good thing. they blatantly lie to gamers too much. it should be stopped.

They also said Watch Dogs was 1080p 60fps. They need to pay for their lies! :X

This just in, Non consumers can sue companies because of products they've never owned or used.
This my friends is why Sheen's are the morons of system wars.