Class Action Filed Against Electronic Arts Over Battlefield 4
On Tuesday the law office of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP submitted a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit is on behalf of Electronic Arts common shareholders who purchased the game publisher's stock between July 24, 2013 and December 4, 2013, aka the "Class Period."
According to the lawsuit, Electronic Arts allegedly issued "materially false" and "misleading" statements highlighting the purported strength of the company's rollout of Battlefield 4 this fall. Electronic Arts then issued strong fiscal 2014 financial guidance for the company, and increased that guidance on October 29. Thanks to these positive statements, stock steadily climbed to as much as $28.13 per share, allowing senior executives to sell their stock at artificially inflated prices.
Once November 15 came around, stock value began to decline due to reports of "multiple glitches and significant crashes" related to the PlayStation 4 version of Battlefield 4. Stock value fell again on December 4 when Electronic Arts told the gaming community that sales of Battlefield 4 would cease until the problems could be fixed. Ultimately, shares declined more than 28 percent in value since the reported high in October.
Statements made by Electronic Arts during the Class Period were "materially false and misleading" because they failed to disclose -- and misrepresented -- a number facts that were allegedly known to or recklessly disregarded by the company. For one, Battlefield 4 was riddled with bugs and multiple other problems, and as a result, Electronic Arts would not achieve a successful holiday season 2013 rollout of Battlefield 4.
Secondly, the unit responsible for Battlefield 4 was so "deficient" that all other projects were put on hold so that the entire unit could focus on fixing the problems. Because of this, there was no way Electronic Arts would be on track to achieve the financial results it had told the market it was on track to achieve during the Class Period.
The complaint charges Electronic Arts and a number of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The unnamed Plaintiff is seeking to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Electronic Arts common stock during the Class Period.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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bsharrah Figured something like this would occur. Way too many issues with this game for people to just roll over and accept it. Never saw a console game have this many problems. To this day I can't play campaign and be able to save my progress.Reply -
ddpruitt What about all of us who gave EA money and expected something in return? Anyone paying attention to EA over the last few years knew they were gambling money on EA's stock (worst company 3 years running, botch roll outs of several games, important devs leaving, etc). Is there anyone wiling to protect us gamers who actually paid for a product instead of some wealthy jackass lawyer representing some wealthy asshole who was making a bet on the stock market?Reply -
AJSB Last EA/DICE i bought was BFBC2 and i swear never again....Reply
In watched with amusement all the crap (yeah , that's the only world that can describe it) made by EA/DICE since then like MoH, BF3, MoHW and BF4....
The most funny thing is that new game as the same type of issues than previous....only WORSE.
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TeKEffect I'm with you Harrah. Can't even get the campaign to work. Should never have pre-ordered. Say what you want about cod. It works.... Can't say that for bf4Reply -
itsnotmeitsyou Game companies serve stock holders, not gamers.Reply
Oil companies serve stock holders, not drivers.
Governments serve stock holders, not citizens.
Go indie. -
rad666 Looks like they REALLY want to be the "Worst Company in America" for the THIRD year in a row...and maybe even earn it this time.Reply -
ohim First of all any game out there will have issues , second ..the money from this crap type lawsuits will get into the pockets of some dirty ass lawyers. So no matter how bad the game was at start this leaches can go suck it up, they don`t deserve the money. I don`t feel bad for stockholders ... they have more money than any of us could ever dream of anyway, the consumer who was affected by the bugs will get nothing but hopes that one day this game will function 100%. For me personally except the netcode everything works fine since the last update. 1 more month and probaly every body will forget how bad the game was at start.Reply -
06yfz450ridr Honestly they had it coming so many problems from the start. The beta was a nightmare and they fix one problem and create another with their updates. Luckily bf3 turned out good towards the end. Bf4 atleast plays well on pc and looks good so i cant complain besides the glitches stillReply