Wii U owners are lucky to have been spared the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines, a disaster of a release that is only overshadowed by how incompetently EA handled the SimCity release for PC. The saga of how Gearbox passed off work on Colonial Marines to another studio in order to work on Borderlands 2 has been well documented. One gamer believes he was severely misled with the advertising versus the final product he received.
A lawsuit has been filed by lawfirm Edelson LLC on behalf of their client Damion Perrine, who is seeking damages for fans who bought the title after watching demos of the vertical slice shown at PAX East and E3. The claim states:
“Each of the ‘actual gameplay’ demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities. Unfortunately for their fans, Defendants never told anyone — consumers, industry critics, reviewers, or reporters — that their ‘actual gameplay’ demonstration advertising campaign bore little resemblance to the retail product that would eventually be sold to a large community of unwitting purchasers.”
This isn’t the first time Sega has been taken to task for false advertising, as it had to publish a disclaimer in the UK trailer after a complaint was filed to the Advertising Standards Agency. Both Gearbox and Sega remain silent on the matter, but Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford’s own tweets have been cited as evidence against him, so we’ll see just how long that silence remains. Should this lawsuit award damages, it will set a new precedent for how video game demos can be advertised.
What do you think of the lawsuit? Is it warranted? Let us know in the comments below.
[via Polygon]
