The FTC and Sony have come to a settlement over claims that Sony has not delivered on at least one of its promises during the early days of PlayStation Vita advertising. According to the early ads, Sony claimed that consumers could keep playing their PlayStation 3 titles on their Vita with "Cross Platform Gaming." Sony claimed that you could play a game on the PS3, pause it, and then pick up where you left off on your Vita.

Well, you couldn't really do that except with some games that were designed with that functionality in mind. Even more, there are claims that Sony's promise of this Cross Platform Gaming led some to purchase the more expensive 3G version of the Vita in order to play their PS3 games on the road.
The FTC says Sony exaggerated the Vita’s capabilities. In fact, users can’t easily access their PS3 games on the PS Vita. Most PS3 games can’t be played remotely because Sony didn’t specifically design the remote play feature into the PS3 system. For example, the popular PS3 game Killzone 3 was featured in a Sony video about remote play, but was never playable remotely on the Vita – and very few, if any, games of a similar size and complexity worked with the remote play feature.

What about pausing on the console and picking the game up where you left off with the PS Vita? Good luck with that because according to the complaint, the heavily hyped cross platform feature was available for only a few PS3 games.

One ad (pictured below) shows a bit of what Sony falsely promised to consumers. Ads, like the one for MLB 12: The Show said that you would be able to "never stop playing" and that there were "cross platform game saves." It also clearly said that you could "play on your PS3 system and then continue your game on the go with PS Vita." The problem is, you had to play through an entire game on the PS3 since it didn't let you continue in the middle of a game. Sony also neglected to mention that for most of these PlayStation 3 to Vita game transfers to work, you had to buy two copies of the game. One for the PlayStation 3 and one for the PlayStation Vita.


There is also dispute about Sony's claim about being able to play multiplayer games through 3G connections. Well, it was technically true but only for asynchronous multiplayer gaming.

So, what are the final damages here?

Well, Sony has agreed to offer early Vita buyers $25 in case or a voucher for $50 worth of merchandise from a group of Sony products and services. That is to say, a $50 gift card to the PlayStation Network. This settlement is for those that bought the Vita prior to June 1, 2012. If this applies to you, Sony will send a notice to your email.

(via FTC)