Law Firm Investigates Electronic Arts on Battlefield 4 About Compliance with Federal Securities Laws

Law Firm Holzer Holzer & Fistel sent a press release announcing an investigation on statements issued by Electronic Arts and some of its executives between July the 24, 2013 and December the 4, 2013 about the development and sales Battlefield 4 and the game’s impact on the comopany’s revenue and future.

[ratrace]

lol

[wiiuniverse]

EA should go back to making liscenced crap instead of slowly ruining bf

[Kornholic]

"Slowly", that was funny. It has been a steep downhill after Bad Company 2.

[Wizard_King]

This only applies to Aussies.

With our new consumer guarantee laws enacted in 2011, you are within your rights to request a full refund for both BF4 (any version) and Sim City as they do not function as advertised and are considered defective products.

This can only be done at the retailer that you purchased the game from and you still need you receipt/proof of purchase (online sales count to as long as it wasn't Ebay). I have seen several cases of returned copies of BF4 due to the bugs and people not being able to join online games in the early days.

We have very strong consumer laws down here and I suggest that if you are unhappy with either of these games then return them for a full refund, as I stated earlier they do not function as advertised and that gives Aussies full legal rights to replace and refund.

[Razputin]

Well I'm moving to Australia now.

[MWong]

@ Razputin
I'm right behind you. We need this in America.

[hellzsupernova]

Aussies stealing off of us kiwis again. Our consumer guarantees act dates far further back :)

But in all seriousness good hopefully ea will listen to their fans not their stock holders, without us ea won't exist

[Undeadwolfy]

Not just Aussies. This law also applies to Brits.

[SilentNegotiator]

@MWong

America DOES have laws that give you the right to a refund if a product is falsely advertised or defective. What are you talking about?

[Retroman]

HOLZER HOLZER AND FISTEL need to investigate why EA continuously making crappy NFS games.
PERRY MASON watching you EA

[ZombieKiller]

My question is how did this get hit before Call of Duty. I had Ops II ruin 2 PlayStation 3s AFTER the patches.

Not to mention any of the other titles not working properly for a good 6 months.

I picked up BF4 for PS4 and it runs fine (granted I picked it up the other day after the launch patches....)

[jackanderson1985]

theoretically they've some standing for this, they could say that the company failed to disclose the ongoing effect the server issues would have on the sales of the game.. that being said BF4 is still meeting sales targets i believe and if they manage to fix em by Friday (i'm doubting it personally) then they've a 12 day lead to christmas to get the message out and rake in the sales

[nukeitall]

if EA could forsee that they likely would have fixed it.....

[DanDan7]

They should investigate EA for gimping PS3/PS4 games also.

[BlingBlaine]

EA should be investigated for customer fraud, selling products without key features working. (BF4)

False advertisement is illeagle after all.

[Tru_Blu]

I feel like I was ripped off.

[Wizard_King]

As I said above the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) has investigated EA for both these games and they have both been declared as "not functioning as advertised" so unhappy Australians can return their copies to the retailer they purchased it from for a full refund.

You yanks need to wise up and get better laws.

[JessiePinkmanYo]

Agree 100% Wizard. How it works here-some shark firm gets ahold of the case against a company, for any product or service. We consumers are Ill informed, or not at all about partaking in a class action lawsuit. Said sharks sue, win, take their cut and we're left with chum, sometimes (most times) pennies on the dollar, not even worth the postage of sending in a response to claim your settlement. Complete BS...we shell out $60+ dollars for this product and it doesn't work as advertised.
Not only that, but does this game damage your console? I play on X1, but what about the guys doing hard resets consistently to their PC or consoles after a freeze or crash?

[Kleptic]

never read anything about permenent hardware issues specifically because of BF4's freezing...but plenty of people claim it corrupted their OS or install drives to the point of needing reformated, and whatever data loss that came with that...

either way...doesn't matter...won't change anything...the ONLY way to prevent this is for a unanimous agreement that people will stop buying EA published video games...and until that happens, which won't, its just going to keep snowballing...

[mopground]

they already were for madden. i got an email for me to sign a form saying if i wanted to be part of it or something like that. i assumed it was fake until there was an article on n4g a couple of weeks ago about it saying people who signed were getting money back

[DarthJay]

False advertisement is a sick eagle?

[Fluke_Skywalker]

lmao

I am going to start spelling it that way now though lol.

[sovietsoldier]

Ea needs to learn that you cant just slap a number on a half finished product and then reap the cash without some kind of trouble from doing that. there is a reason ea makes worst company in the usa every year.

[OrangePowerz]

They screwed up 2 games this year with SimCity and BF4 and should be taught a lesson.

[joab777]

Its fine that CoD never uses a beta and always launches with problems, getting hacked etc. But b/c they sell well its fine. Gimme a break. We don't want law suits or lawyers getting involved or many companies will lose investors altogether and games won't get made anymore. Its OUR responsibility whether or not to purchase something. And for all the problems B4 has had, it was still more than worth my money! Honestly I havnt had a ton of issues and they have are worling day and night after release near during holidays to fix it. Yeah, the answer is to sue EA and give r money to some law firm.

[OrangePowerz]

Hackers in CoD are certainly a problem, but the game at least works fully when it comes out. The same can't be said about BF4 or SimCity this year.

Reviews didn't really mention that the game is broken in many aspects so if you bought it day one you wouldn't know what you get into.

EA needs to learn that games can't be released in such a state. The same goes for NBA that they quickly made in 12 months that can't hold its own against 2k14 and they still sell it for full price. You know it's a bad game and I do, but there are many people who don't read gaming news and saw that there is a new NBA live and bought it based on previous experience with the series.

If they try to screw shareholders by pretending everything is fine while they know that the game is buggy and won't work that well on launch they have the right to sue EA. If that is needed for them to get their act together and release games that fully work that's fine by me.

[mopground]

they companies will continue to release buggy games and the industry will decline as no one is held accountable.

[n4rc]

The fine print has them covered.. Always does.. And jebus.. Ea is a publisher..

The state of the game is solely on dice.. Unless each rushed them but I doubt it..

They were spread too thin. Can't develop for 5 platforms at once.. Especially a game as complex as bf.

[SonyAddict]

Oh!,and you would know,eh!.

[n4rc]

More then the people blaming a publisher for bugs in a game..

[MidnytRain]

n4rc

You seem to think that a publisher doesn't have a major influence on a how a game comes out...

[nirwanda]

They own dice they are not just a publisher for dice.

[Anthemios]

What fine print? We're not talking about game owners, but shareholders who are protected by federal securities laws. No amount of "fine print" can exculpate EA from a violation of a federal statute.

As for consumers, remember that gaming is a luxury. The adhesion contracts that limit your ability to sue EA for defective products are legally enforceable. Don't like it? Stop buying EA games.

[ABeastNamedTariq]

Your vocabulary, hot damn! Great reply.

[Elwenil]

EA owns DICE, lock stock and barrel. EA is ultimately responsible.

[admiralvic]

"The fine print has them covered.. Always does.. And jebus.. Ea is a publisher..

The state of the game is solely on dice.. Unless each rushed them but I doubt it.. "

Responsibility falls on both of them. However, there were signs that EA might have rushed ( http://www.gamespot.com/art... ) the next generation versions. While the interview gives us a more "PR" answer, it's entirely possible they wanted to delay it and EA just said to make it work.

[n4rc]

Well... Its my bad for reading comments before the article.. Judging by that it seemed another pointless lawsuit threat..

Having said that.. The article is pretty suspect..

Why would a law firm issue a press release saying they are investigating ea. For what purpose? On whose behalf? The author just makes assumptions when the facts should have been blatant.

I personally don't see this as credible.. Could be completely fake, could be cheap advertising for this firm.. But we shall see I suppose

And yes.. I get that ea is fully responsible as publisher.. But having comments targeting them as if they made the game is unfounded.. They didn't screw up the game.. They didn't develop it.. Dice did.. The last bf game released in the same time and state.. Moh was horrible etc.. Point is.. Dice deserves the blame here.. I'm not defending ea, more making sure the brunt of the blame goes where it belongs

[Elwenil]

You are missing the point. DICE is a division under EA. If you buy a new Cadillac and it explodes, you don't sue Cadillac, you sue GM, the parent company.

[FunkMacNasty]

n4rc - DICE can't be to blame here. The developers are looking toward a quality game and aren't worried about strategic release dates or quarterly earnings. That's ALL publishers think about. So I would be willing to bet EA execs were in the ear of DICE studio managers frequently about having the game release across all platforms before CoD and during the Holiday sales Quarter, which clearly puts a rush on development.

Remember, EA isn't concerned with the state of the product once its in your hands--they only care that you bought it. Once it's broken, they can issue apology statements and have DICE issue (or make promises of) upcoming patches and fixes, but once you fork the cash over the store counter EA gets all they want.

[rbluetank]

How do you finish sp? I hate my sp being reset every time I stop playing the game. I will not even talk about the drop outs happening in the mp of BF4. i hope this makes EA get this game running as promise.

[andygee1987]

I have platinum'd the game with no crashing or server errors at all yet must be very lucky

[rbluetank]

I just did another update on BF4. I am just going to put in 4 to 8 hrs strght. I like to take my time with a game. this will be something new for me...

[kornbeaner]

If this actually pans out they could also be potentially investigated for Security flaws in Fifa. I believe for Fifa 12 a lot of XBL customers got their CC numbers and Accounts hacked due to Fifa's lack of security measures and this year the same thing happen but with PSN customers.

Could be a very bad 2014 for EA if all the legal trouble persist.

[christheredhead]

The law firm is looking into complaince with securties law. In this instance we're talking about stocks/shareholders. Not actual security flaws within the game.

Holzer Holzer and Fistel represents shareholder interests and they'll most likely want to verify that public information was not withheld in relation to sales numbers/revenue data that could hurt share price. This company is quite active in the stock market world. I've seen them investigate security claims on many companies, so it seems standard business as usual. It's how they stay in business after all.

With that being said, until more information is released, we really don't know if they even have a case yet. Personally, I don't think much will come from this as its not that big of a deal in retrospect. EA will most likely pay a small sum to make them go away.

[kornbeaner]

We'll thanks for that info, I didn't know who they were. Sounds like a bunch of legal sharks claiming to be out for the well being of shareholders, but know how to pressure big companies just enough to make them pay a small personal fee.

[xlSAVAGElx]

I'm really glad I didn't pay for BF4 Premium I would of been really fkn pissed. BF4 was literally unplayable for an entire week on the PS4 what a waste of $60. I am talking about corrupted single player saves, multiplayer online crashes, conquest wasn't even available... EA & DICE took about 2 weeks to release a patch that made it somewhat playable. Right now it's still buggy as hell. Hell even COD Ghosts runs better than BF4. Gonna trade it in to get $40 dollars back. Not even gonna bother with NFS Rivals or any EA Game this is ridiculous. PC also had issues with BF4.

[Nocando]

I bought premium ): I believe by the time I am able to play it without issues I will have moved on. Lesson learned.

[SITH]

Bf4 was no where near ready for release. It plays like an alpha game with a pretty dress on. Looks good, but is full of shit.

[TrueJerseyDevil]

yea because EA pushed them. still a great game, when they fix the bugs this will be the best game on nex gen

[SITH]

Yep bugs aside, it is fun as hell.

[tehpees3]

I knew this game was getting patched on everything under the sun but I didn't know it had a total of 15 patches. That shocked me. This game should have been delayed until next year. I hope burning money you earned from the sales fixing the game teach you a lesson about rushing to cash in for Christmas and new console launches.

[Hitman0769]

About Time! My god... this industry is so un-regulated...

[Joey_Leone]

Bf4 is decent and the graphics are pretty good, cheesy storyline though and the game crashes\corruption files is really frustrating. The last good battlefield was bad company 2 in my opinion. EA lost another customer.

[HarryB]

Bf4 works good now. But I would def want my money back. They can kiss my ass for how they developed this game.