Court dismisses Battlefield 4 fraud lawsuit

As you’ll recall, Battlefield 4 had a less-than-successful launch, with players complaining of bugs, glitches, server issues and all sorts of other problems that prevented the game from being all it could be.  Before launch though, it was hyped as just about the best military game ever made – and it’s something EA and its executives have been taken to task for, by way of lawsuits. Judges have now dismissed those lawsuits.

EA and its executives stood accused of duping investors with their public statements about the game’s abilities, and also for concealing the many issues players would encounter in the military shooter. So great was the deception, some investors believed, as to warrant a lawsuit.

The complaint was filed in federal court on behalf of anyone who bought EA stock between July 24 and December 4 in 2013. It would have been a bad time to buy EA; after Battlefield’s troubled launch and the three months it took for DICE and EA to patch the game in to a mostly working state, EA shares took quite a knock, dropping as much as 6 percent in a single day. It was all for nought though; a judge has disagreed with the complaint, saying that EA’s hype was merely that: protected corporate puffery – and not straight out deception.

“The Court agrees with defendants that all of the purported misstatements are inactionable statements of opinion, corporate optimism, or puffery,” says US District Judge Susan Illston.

I don’t think there was any sort of collusion, or behind-the-scenes deception. EA is a company, and as such wants to make money. They want to do so by delivering games that people want to play, and pay for. Hyping their games is part of that – and it’s up to investors and consumers alike to make their own decisions. The lawsuit was fruitless – and in The End, they probably should have just Let it Be.

Last Updated: October 23, 2014