Class Action Suit Claims Aliens: Colonial Marines Falsely Advertised

piscian18

piscian18

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
11,021
and so it begins

"We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers," says the plaintiff's representative, Edelson LLC.


Sega and Gearbox have been targeted in a class action suit, taken up by legal firm Edelson LLC on behalf of Damion Perrine, alleging that Aliens: Colonial Marines was falsely advertised by showing demos which bore very little relation to the final product. The suit argues that, because of the press embargo that only lifted on the game's February 12th launch, those who bought early or pre-ordered would have had no idea that significant discrepancies between the demo and final game existed.

"Each of the 'actual gameplay' demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities," the claim states; but, as we know now, that wasn't entirely so. The class action cites a specific Tweet by Randy Pitchford, Gearbox head, in which Pitchford seems to acknowledge that differences existed and were significant. "That is understood and fair" Tweeted Pitchford, in response to a statement by a fan, who argued that the people just wanted an explanation as to why the game was so different from the demo. "We are looking at that," Pitchford went on to say. "Lots of info to parse, lots of stake holders to respect."

Edelson LLC, the firm representing Perrine, argues that the video game industry is no different from any other industry that deals with consumers. "If companies like Sega and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else," said Edelson's Ben Thomassen to Polygon, "then they should be held accountable for that decision." This isn't the first time Edelson has delved into the game industry's murkier waters. It previously acted on behalf of gamers upset over a mishandled promotion, and broken promise, concerning Battlefield 3's PS3 release. Edelson describes that case as "presently in settlement posture," but goes on to say that it continues to monitor the industry, with a view to keeping "the booming video game business honest."


Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...arines-Falsely-Advertised#cJLuPqGo1t1fH7IO.99
Click to expand...

I think Sega really shot themselves in the foot by not publicly going after Gearbox in response to the customer complaints.

I also think they hit the nail on the head with this nebulous defense the industry has been hiding behind lately. If you show an Ironman trailer with RDJ in it and its actually starring carrot top and nothing in the trailer (hell in this case it was an explicit gameplay demo) reflects the game then sorry you deserved to be sued. Since I bought a digital copy I'm curious as to how this will affect me.
 
Last edited:
I actually think this is an good lawsuit, considering what I'm hearing about the game.
 
I see almost all lawsuits against the video game industry as positive. The industry as a whole, including distributors, probably have the worst customer service of all other industries.
 
bigdogchris said:
I see almost all lawsuits against the video game industry as positive. The industry as a whole, including distributors, probably have the worst customer service of all other industries.
Click to expand...

Yeah. There is so much bullshit in the air and this is a good place to start weeding it out. I'm actually surprised Sega themselves have not sued Gearbox yet, if the Aliens: CM funding getting "reallocated" rumor is real that is.
 
I was a big Gearbox fan but after the A:CM fiasco I am seriously apprehensive about buying anymore of their products. I, like alot of people, pre-ordered based upon all the videos and pics and got what looks like a cheapo, knock-off not what was shown at all of the Cons.

I don't care if I only get a dollar, as long as Sega/Gearbox have to payout millions and realize they can't screw with their customers like that. People tried to complain nicely and through proper channels at first only to be met with "No refunds, screw off." The only thing that companies seem to listen to nowadays is stuff that hits them in THEIR wallet, so I'm hoping this case ends up doing just that.
 
This seems like one of the positive lawsuits... the gaming industry has some real junk studios and it has that dotcom bust vibe to it now... all the kids and angel investors jumped in for the money... now the quality and innovation went to hell and it's busting... aka... someone flipped the lights on and the cockroaches are scurrying to other industries.
 
People need to stop giving these game companies interest free loans aka pre-orders. After RAGE, I swore to never pre order a game again and I haven't. Don't give the pubs/devs a single penny until reviews come out.
 
NukeDukem said:
People need to stop giving these game companies interest free loans aka pre-orders. After RAGE, I swore to never pre order a game again and I haven't. Don't give the pubs/devs a single penny until reviews come out.
Click to expand...

Yep, pre-ordering is a shady business. Unfortunately, with all the pre-order only exclusives and discounts, it's gotten even more tempting.

I fully support this lawsuit. It's really bad for the industry when companies can throw together a bunch of fake gameplay footage or cgi scenes and dupe the consumers with no repercussions. It hurts the industry as a whole.
 
pffft the only people that win in lawsuits are lawyers..

i understand that something like this may need to be shown as an example, but those of you saying this will stop developers/publishers over promising games then you are living in a dream world..

learn your lesson, don't per-order and wait before you buy to make sure its good.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Try the search feature

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1759718
Click to expand...

We can edit our posts here ;)

Personally, I'm happy to see it. I was looking forward to Aliens:Colonial Marines in theory. Loved AVP2, didn't care for whatever sequel came out a few years ago...was hoping this would be good. Glad I didn't spend the money...but I certainly hadn't learned anything from it, as I STILL preordered Bioshock Infinite. Luckily, that turned out well.
 
NukeDukem said:
People need to stop giving these game companies interest free loans aka pre-orders. After RAGE, I swore to never pre order a game again and I haven't. Don't give the pubs/devs a single penny until reviews come out.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't even listen to reviews. Play the game yourself or watch streams / youtube gameplay videos. And decide yourself.
 
Just remember that participating in class-action lawsuits results in a paper trail that may cause problems with potential future employers or financial institutions.
 
NukeDukem said:
People need to stop giving these game companies interest free loans aka pre-orders. After DUKE NUKEM FOREVER, I swore to never pre order a game again and I haven't. Don't give the pubs/devs a single penny until reviews come out.
Click to expand...

fixed for accuracy lol :p

This is at least the second time Gearbox has stepped into the poo poo
 
fdiaz78 said:
Good luck. The EULA specifically makes you waive your right to a class action lawsuit and you are forced to go to arbitration.
Click to expand...

And also we pretty much knew what we were getting beforehand. As disappointing as it may have been, it's not like EA was advertising a completely different game where you could play offline and where the city map was 10 times bigger than it really was. (Or were they?)
 
bigdogchris said:
I see almost all lawsuits against the video game industry as positive. The industry as a whole, including distributors, probably have the worst customer service of all other industries.
Click to expand...

There probably should be lemon laws for software.
 
Ya the game was such a let down and after dropping 60$ on it I was pissed with how it came out. Even with fully maxed out settings it sucks, and the AI is crap, the story sucked.

Waste of money.
 
Gearbox responded:

Attempting to wring a class action lawsuit out of a demonstration is beyond meritless
Click to expand...
But didn't Randy Pitchford say that the demonstration was what the final game would look like?
 
bigdogchris said:
Gearbox responded:

But didn't Randy Pitchford say that the demonstration was what the final game would look like?
Click to expand...

Yep. Not to mention Sega is advertising it as an accurate representation of the final game. All of Sega's ads for the game use the fake demo footage. At this point Sega is knowingly advertising the game using footage from a demo that is not at all representative of the game.
 
Derangel said:
Yep. Not to mention Sega is advertising it as an accurate representation of the final game. All of Sega's ads for the game use the fake demo footage. At this point Sega is knowingly advertising the game using footage from a demo that is not at all representative of the game.
Click to expand...
I can understand that the demonstration is what they hoped it would look like, but once you find out it's not going to look like that, you should pull the advertising that says it will.
 
this is ridiculous. adults are acting like small children. Aside from the graphical differences, a demo is that, a demo, it's even stated on a watermark "not representative of the final product". You bought the game, deal with it. There are tons of sites with screenshots and ingame videos and reviews, if you pre-ordered its your problem. Pre-order is a gamble.
 
hardc0re said:
this is ridiculous. adults are acting like small children. Aside from the graphical differences, a demo is that, a demo, it's even stated on a watermark "not representative of the final product". You bought the game, deal with it. There are tons of sites with screenshots and ingame videos and reviews, if you pre-ordered its your problem. Pre-order is a gamble.
Click to expand...

People don't like getting screwed over by big companies. Why this specific title was chosen, i don't know, but there needs to be some kind of honesty here.

Mass Effect 3 was lauded by the devs/PR people several times, specifically, that it would not be "An A, B, C ending" and was exactly that. It was a blatant and outright lie, whether or not you liked the ending(s).

SimCity...well, that debacle has been talked to death recently. That has features that were "on the box" that have been *removed* not to mention the whole server downtime fiascos. Companies should not be given a free pass and be able to say "oh sorry we didn't expect the demand" "oh sorry something came up, 120min queue time".

Diablo 3, there was a huge amount of bullshit spewed by the team during several blue posts / 'Cons describing the game, as well as it's own server issues. One of note was a question asked about the stash/bank size. They went from "we don't want you to need to mule" to "the stash will be ridiculously huge" to confirming a shared stash to reducing that shared stash in size by a third. And that pretty much sums up all the other aspects of the game's history of "we want to fix a problem from before" "we promise to make it better" to "here's the half ass delivery that actually makes it worse than before".

It's false and misleading advertisement and many of these companies absolutely rely on it to be successful.
 
hardc0re said:
this is ridiculous. adults are acting like small children. Aside from the graphical differences, a demo is that, a demo, it's even stated on a watermark "not representative of the final product". You bought the game, deal with it. There are tons of sites with screenshots and ingame videos and reviews, if you pre-ordered its your problem. Pre-order is a gamble.
Click to expand...

while I am not a big fan of lawsuits, sometimes they are needed when a complany totally mis-represets what they are selling. This is one of those occasions

They stated it was representitive of final game play, it was not.

Go play a demo of Descent and then play the retail version: Demo was a very accurate representation of the final product.

Same for the current sonic racers game demo on the Wii U
 
H-street said:
pffft the only people that win in lawsuits are lawyers..

i understand that something like this may need to be shown as an example, but those of you saying this will stop developers/publishers over promising games then you are living in a dream world..

learn your lesson, don't per-order and wait before you buy to make sure its good.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. It is a completely shitty thing that Gearbox did deceiving people with the demo and I don't believe that Sega is an innocent party to this either. You can't sell a product and say you hold no accountability as to what it is. But at best your going to see something like $1.00 dollar checks or $5.00 game credits out of this (off another crappy Gearbox and/or Sega game). If you can't wait a week (max) for reviews of a game to flood the internet then you kinda deserve to get burned though. It's not like your going to miss your chance to play the game, they can make more. So many people want to be 'first' though, and when you want to be an early adopter of anything, whether its a game, a car, a new tech device, almost anything- you take the risk of buying something that's a piece of crap.
 
Stiletto said:
Just remember that participating in class-action lawsuits results in a paper trail that may cause problems with potential future employers or financial institutions.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'd like to do some more reading on that. Could you post some sources?
 
Actually, so would I. Not that I'm participating in this one, cuz I never bought it.

Seems silly that it would affect your employment potential.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top