Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

[Shawn Zipay]

PlayStation 3 owners irate over a broken promise of a free copy of Battlefield 1943 with the purchase of Battlefield 3 are taking DICE and EA to court. As you may recall, EA originally promised to include a free copy of 1943 with pre-orders of BF3 on the PS3. Well, it turns out they had to go back on that promise and only announced the lack of Battlefield 1943 by way of Twitter.

Yep, it was only revealed that there would be no free game via Twitter. So the law firm of Edelson McGuire have filed a class action lawsuit against EA on behalf of "disgruntled PS3 owners."

The suit ultimately alleges that EA "misled and profited from thousands of their customers by making a promise that they could not, and never intended, to keep".

In terms of what those taking part in the case are after, while the standard legalese terms like "compensatory relief" apply, the lawyers involved tell Kotaku that in practical terms all those involved are after is the free copy of Battlefield (1943) they were promised.

Ah yes, the ol' "bait and switch" move as some are calling this. EA did attempt to appease angry PS3 owners by announcing that the expansions for Battlefield 3 would be first available on the PS3. The problem with that is the fact the early release has been known about since September, a full month before it was announced that there would be no Battlefield 1943 included.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

Yeah, I feel this lawsuit is justified and EA should lose it.

It wasnt enough time given for people to decide to get the game or not. Would that make any difference? Well, luckily thats not the question.

I also know that I read a lot of posts when the 1943 addition was mentioned, that a lot of people complained about it because they already had it. So perhaps EA can get out of this if they can show post after post of people stating they had it already.

[l=l-ONeill-l=l]

What about the promise to make battlefield 1943 available for PC?

[Minmaster]

Re: Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

now bring on the suit for EA switching lead platform from PC to consoles midway through development!

but seriously, yea that's messed up.

[Eagle101]

^ lol when i read 'midway' in your post i thought you meant the 1942 map :P Anyways i dont think 1943 is too important its rather cheap on the PSN as well as it is not as much fun as its bigger siblings.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

Youre right that its cheap and an older game, however, they announced for a very long period of time that it would be bundled in for BF3 pre-orders on the PSN. Then a few weeks before release its announced, only on twitter and no other media source, that it will not be included.

I think if EA emailed out and flashed on the PSN network a few months before release that it was being removed, this probably wouldnt be a big deal.

Some time ago Zh1nt0 commented that they were removing it because it was an older game and from feedback just about everyone said they already had it anyway. If that statement was true, the best thing EA could do is release 1943 for all the pre-orders and make all this invalid.

People will sue for anything and Im sure some have schemed this up as a way to get something for nothing. If it is true that just about everyone on PSN has 1943, then why bother sueing over this? So either it is true, but people are being greedy and want to take the chance of getting something for nothing or its not true and very few have it and 1943 was the tipping factor in buying BF3.

[K-16]

Re: Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

What about the promise to make battlefield 1943 available for PC?

Cancelled to focus on Battlefield 3. Unless your question was rhetorical, in which case I apologize for missing your point.

I like CptainCrunch's questioning behind the reasoning for dishonoring the pre-order bonus. Could the cost of producing the game on disc be another possible reason behind this choice? Perhaps burning an already completed game is more expensive than we all thought? Perhaps discs won't be duplicated fast enough to meet the release date on-time if 1943 had to be included? Perhaps... Uh... Cost of labor isn't worth the uh... Small title that almost gives the impression that EA/DICE is treating this game as "shovelware" (even though it isn't)? Wait a minute... If putting it on disc is the problem, then why can't they simply offer a download code for PSN? Wouldn't that be cheaper and reduce labor costs (if it was even a problem in the first place)?

Also, aren't there legal fees/costs involved with this? All for a free $15 valued game?

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

Lawyers will enter their costs into the winnings. Which is also why EA should give them the game.

Also, I dont think you can buy a hard copy of 1943. I thought it was always an online download thing just because of the size of the game. When I go to Amazon to purchase it, it doesnt come up, so it would have to be a code.

[K-16]

I was under the impression that Battlefield 1943 was to be included within the Battlefield 3 disc(s) given the news posts I've read from various sites. Originally it was only available on PSN/Live, so since the game is absent from the Battlefield 3 disc(s), I was under the assumption that there were certain costs (time?) that prevented the bonus from being honored. So wouldn't releasing a voucher allowing players to redeem the game on PSN for free solve that problem? Bandwidth and labor costs should be minimal when customers download one-time use PDF vouchers to make this happen.

[*FMJ*Power]

Re: Lawsuit Filed Against EA Over Broken Battlefield 1943 Promise

Someone should inform the legal team of the screw job EA did on the PC preorders, it will help set a precedent and a history of deception, lies, and undelivered promises related to this title and make it all that much easier for the PS3 guys to get proper compensation.........there's still people that haven't gotten their refund for their PC preorder.....EA flat out refused to give me one or send me a check, instead offering a $20 discount code and it took 20 minutes with support to get even that....not cool


As far as the PC is concerned I think EA finally realized they weren't going to be "renting" any BF43 servers and they sure as hell weren't going to foot the bill so they just shit canned the entire idea in lue of a WW2 DLC pack for BF3, you watch, they will recycle that work put into it. I'd hazard a guess this played into their decision for the PS3 users as well, imagine how many more server's EA would have to set up for all those free copies of the game they gave away.