A North Carolina man is suing the maker of the Final Fantasy XV mobile game over claims that the app is designed to trick players into spending money.
Christopher East says Machine Zone Inc. and its subsidiary Epic Action deceived him and induced him to spend an estimated $14,500 on the game over the span of four months this year. The companies are profiting through predatory and fraudulent advertising practices and unfair business practices, East says, and violating California business laws in the process.
East filed a class action lawsuit against Machine Zone and Epic Action on Oct. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. He is seeking monetary damages from the companies he claims “intentionally transformed the game into an exploitative monetized service” and wants to represent a Class of other players who were induced to make in-app purchases to enhance their experiences.
“Among other things, [the] defendants introduced into the game an illegal money-making scheme that relies on false and misleading pop-up advertisements, coupled with design elements similar to casino play, to disguise the true cost of the gaming service until players are financially and psychologically invested,” East’s class action lawsuit says. “Defendants’ advertising and pricing scheme is predatory and unfair, and it harms consumers.”
Final Fantasy XV is the mobile version of the popular role-playing, “Japanese anthology science fantasy” action game of the same name created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, according to the class action lawsuit. It was released as an app for mobile devices on Android and Apple operating system platforms in June 2017.
East says he’s played the game on his Android phone since March.
The game is classified as a “massively multiplayer online role-playing game,” East’s class action lawsuit says, meaning it hosts a large number of players all participating in a shared online world in real time.
Final Fantasy XV had been downloaded more than 51 million times by January 2019, and grossed more than $165 million in the U.S. and $518 million worldwide, according to East’s lawyer. A good amount of the money it earns comes from in-app purchases.
“The game is free to download, but almost immediately users are encouraged to make in-game purchases, or microtransactions, which involve spending real money, usually in small amounts (but not always) to have access to certain features or services within the game,” the class action lawsuit explains.
Purchasing enhancements to upgrade the Final Fantasy game experience is critical to the game, East claims.
“Without purchasing these packs — which cost real money — players are unable to advance in the game and are easily defeated by other players who have made such purchases and upgrades.”
The pay-to-play scheme is where the game designers have gone wrong, the class action lawsuit says. It uses “false and misleading advertising, predatory pricing tactics, and gambling psychology designed to create and reinforce addictive behaviors,” the plaintiff argues.
Packs of boosters and other gaming enhancers are first offered via promotions for $4.99 each, the class action says. The offers are made through pop-up graphics on the screen featuring “casino-like” bright colors and lights and suspenseful music and often are billed as being available for a limited time only.
After a player buys a pack of game extras at the entry-level price, subsequent offers often come at higher prices, jumping up to $19.99 and then $99.99 or more.
“Once a player purchases a $19.99 pack, he is rarely if ever are offered a $4.99 pack again. Similarly, once a player purchases a $99.99 pack, he is rarely if ever offered a $4.99 or $19.99 pack,” the class action lawsuit alleges. “In almost all instances, the packs … do not actually provide the item or service advertised, forcing players to buy additional packs — at increasing costs — to achieve the items or results originally advertised.”
Through the Final Fantasy XV game’s design, Machine Zone and Epic Action have violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law, among others, and are guilty of unjust enrichment at the expense of their players, East alleges.
The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial for the class action lawsuit.
Have you ever played the Final Fantasy XV mobile game? Were you convinced to make in-app purchases to enhance the game? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
East and the proposed Class Members are represented by Melody L. Sequoia of The Sequoia Law Firm.
The Final Fantasy Class Action Lawsuit is Christopher East, et al. v. Epic Action LLC, et al., Case No. 5:20-cv-07455, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
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47 thoughts onFinal Fantasy Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over In-App Sales
I played FFXV daily for numerous years. They would start with $4.99 packs. After those were purchased, the $4.99 packs would disappear. Sure, players didn’t have to buy them but if you were seriously playing the game, you had to buy the packs. They were always missing items in the packs that were advertised as being there. When you put a ticket in with a complaint, it fell on deaf ears. There were never any refunds given for misleading or missing items, either. It was very frustrating and expensive! Then, they closed the game down with 2 weeks notice. A game that players spent a lot of time and money on. Very disappointing.
I also spent thousands of dollars in this POS game. I feel like an idiot for doing so, but at the time it seemed super important, and I felt like I had to keep up or I’d not be relevant to continue playing. I am even more so upset at the fact that all of that money spent was for absolutely nothing now, as the game has been shut down. Although, I can say that I am glad that its been shut down, and maybe it’s because of all of these reasons stated above by multiple people that it finally got shut down. At least now I’m free from that vice/addiction. They were definitely a “money grab” game and they used a lot of false advertisement for packs in the game, and as others above stated, did nothing about it when you filed a complaint or spoke to customer service aka the developers. I would also like to congratulate the guy who filed a lawsuit, and also am curious what ever came of it, and whether a lawsuit can be filed to get my money back from those aholes since they abruptly shut down the game leaving everyone high and dry for their money spent.
Funny, I’ve been playing the game from the beginning, since June 2017, and haven’t spent more than $25 in total. So that’s what I would normally pay for a good game. There were always packs in between that were worth it, and then I bought. And always only for $4.99. If you had the patience and didn’t buy anything for a long time, you also got again and again offers at 4.99.
In the end, I was on the same level, Citadel 1020, as the players who paid thousands because they were too impatient. At least on server 1 there was so much for free that with a little patience you could make steady progress. Instant upgrades as goodies, scrap market etc.
It’s up to everyone to decide for themselves whether they want to pay. We are responsible adults and not small children who can’t count beyond 3.
The financial issues in this scheme have already been stated. Their practices are questionable at best.
One of the things that was the most disturbing, is when players from other countries were unable to access the game due to politics. Machine zone did not protect them in the game which cost those players thousands of dollars. Anytime you write to them and ask for assistance you were ignored, or given a copy paste, automated response and then your ticket closed. You also were not allowed to write tickets more than once in 24 hours or they closed your complaint. They didn’t even Hold up to their rules and regulations on harassment/bullying of all kinds. After eight years in the game and thousands of dollars spent, they end the game with just a few weeks, warning and offer no compensation. The game is very psychologically addictive. With a final note of redirecting us to further MZ Game That would cost thousands of dollars just to catch up. They’re welcome pack to the new games were very skimpy and got us nowhere especially in game Of war. There were many issues of Not getting the pack offered or missing several items in the pack as well as their mistakes on things and lowering the power of items you bought. I wanted to put in a personal thank you to the man who filed the suit.