EA May Face Legal Action Over Battlefield 4

Electronic Arts may be facing a potential lawsuit over Battlefield 4, as the law office of Holzer Holzer & Fistel, LLC is investigating to see whether EA and/or a number of its officers complied with the federal securities laws between July 24, 2013 and December 4, 2013. This investigation focuses on statements made by EA during that timeframe regarding the development and sales of Battlefield 4, and the shooter’s impact on the company’s revenue and projects moving forward.

“If you purchased EA common stock between July 24, 2013 and December 4, 2013 and suffered losses on that investment, you are encouraged to contact Holzer Holzer & Fistel, LLC,” the law office states. “Holzer Holzer & Fistel, LLC is an Atlanta, Georgia law firm that dedicates its practice to vigorous representation of shareholders and investors in litigation nationwide, including shareholder class action and derivative litigation.”

Initially PlayStation 4 owners who purchased Battlefield 4 were met with a number of crashes and corrupted save files. DICE released an update on November 26, but that hasn’t stopped the gossipers from pegging the buggy experience on EA’s need to beat Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts to the market. A supposed QA tester has even confirmed this theory, saying that EA rushed the game through the quality assurance phase.

"Listen, we have to do a better job of getting games into the market that are as bug-free as possible," says Patrick Söderlund, executive vice president of EA Studios, in a recent interview with The Guardian. "What I would say is, games are becoming more and more complex – even though we'll run a beta and we'll do massive amounts of testing, there are certain things, especially in an online-focused environment, that you won't catch. I wish I could day that we will, but I don't think we'll ever catch everything."

"We try and do an update every second day to improve the game experience, and there are patches in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360," Söderlund adds. "I bet we'll have to do the same thing on the next-gen machines. But our commitment to making the best gameplay experience on a continual basis is there."

The potential lawsuit is taking the side of EA shareholders in all of this mess, as they may have taken a hit in the wallet thanks to all the negativity surrounding the game. Just recently EA put a hold on all future DLC until the bugs have been ironed out, a move that didn’t sit well with investors, causing a 7.3 percent dip.

That all said, right now the law office is merely conducting an investigation, so stay tuned.

  • Mousemonkey
    It's about time some one asked questions, BF3 wasn't the smoothest of launches either IIRC.
    Reply
  • rocknrollz
    Paragraph four, last sentence, 5th word. Believe that was suppose to say "say" and not "day".
    Reply
  • sykozis
    So, I guess now the only risk in the stock market is to those companies that sell shares.... If stock value decreases, just sue the company to make up the loss....then pocket more money when the stock goes back up.
    Reply
  • sixdegree
    Maybe, just maybe... EA should hire MORE testers and hire LESS executives.
    Reply
  • oczdude8
    That law firm just wants to take advantage of the judicial system to get a nice juicy cut of whatever their "clients" wins
    Reply
  • lancelot123
    Damn lawyers. This is why we can't have nice things!
    Reply
  • azzazel_99
    Yep this game was not ready for launch and was rushed in order to compete with call of duty. Less money grubbing executives and more gamers. Had the gamers been in control I believe more things would have been ironed out but because of the executives wanting to line their pockets we as consumers who spent anywhere from $59.99 to well over $100 get stuck with a crappy game.
    Reply
  • thechief73
    Where's the restitution for the people conned into pre-orders or payed $60+ for a unfinished broken game, or any amount for that matter. This has happened all to often with EA, it's not a fluke. They knew what they did from day one. These fan's are who made EA and the BF franchise, and they get treated like a source of cash to be harvested. It's sad really.
    Reply
  • Pinhedd
    12159452 said:
    It's about time some one asked questions, BF3 wasn't the smoothest of launches either IIRC.

    Indeed.

    During BF3's launch the dog wasn't the game itself, but Battlelog. The game was stablish(ish) but getting into a game was a nightmare.

    BF4 has been the other way around. Battlelog is fairly mature and functional, but the game itself is quite unstable.
    Reply
  • tolham
    12159702 said:
    These fan's are who made EA and the BF franchise, and they get treated like a source of cash to be harvested. It's sad really.

    and the flip side of that coin is, if you don't want be treated like a source of cash to be harvested, then don't act like one by pre-ording games from EA. EA has had a tarnished reputation for years and this isn't the first game, or even piece of software in general, to have bugs on launch. change starts with consumers, not with executives.
    Reply