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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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40 thoughts onFinal Fantasy Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over In-App Sales
I’ve played since 2017, it is a rip off. I’ve spent well over 100k, it would be nice to see the developers get what they deserve. It is a highly addictive game that relies on bait and switch tactics.
I have 3 accounts and pack pricing between the 3 are different.
If you want to be a valid player, you must pay to play. After building relationships with people through out the world, it makes it difficult to break away from those friendships. Every time you open app, a pop up entices you to buy. I’m down if you need anything in regards to this lawsuit. Count me in
It’s not just this app it’s damn near every “free” app out there. Add me
I’m a huge final fantasy fan but this game wow this game has taken tens of thousands of dollars of mine and my friends. It shouldn’t be related to final fantasy at all. It’s a complete rip off but you don’t realize it until it’s too late.
I have played this game since 2017 and you cannot level up without buying packs. I have several account I play on and the ones that I never spend money on will never grow. They force you to buy packs to level up. I have made complaint after complaint over the years about purchasing packs that do not contain what they say they will. You get a reply that is never in your favor….ever. I have made complaints to get my money back. You have to use your ipay account and it is always 100% turned down. If you purchase something and do not get what you purchased you should get your money back due to false advertising. Well they don’t see it that way. Most of the time their response is….we will send this to our sales team for further review. I know players that have lost their homes and have been near divorce because they have spent in excess of 100,000. They will offer this 19.99 random resource packs that advertise MEGA resource bundle LEVEL UP YOUR CITADEL. Well you get some poor person to buy that and it does not give you enough RSS to level up anything. Then the next pack is 49.99 FOR THE SAME DAMN PACK. It is a total scam. They cater to the big spenders and that is it.
I totally understand your comment but it becomes an addiction. You are interacting with real people just like real friends. You build relationships and even meet up. The best way to describe this is a pissing contest and the little man always loses.
This game has taken tens of thousands to keep up with since 2017. Everything stated in the class action is true. Between my acft and my girlfriends we have put close to and may exceed $60,000. I know many players who have spent over $100,000. I have stopped playing for just over a month now and my account is totally worthless even after spending that kind of money. Its taken a long time to see just how misleading the developers really are. Its truly a very well strategically organized scam. Everyilthing is available in catch up packs shortly after being advertised as limited time. If you don’t spend money in this game you really can’t play competitively. You become locked in and addicted to the point that you neglect real life needs. Playing this was ine of the biggest mistakes of my life. Please include me in this ill happily help in any way I can.
I spent thousands of dollars on that game. You can’t play it if you don’t buy packs, unless you just want to farm and be continuously attacked. They charged for everything, even events! The updates were fast and not even a 99$ pack would do much, you would gather, do tasks, attack smaller players and still not be able to really play the game. You needed to buy loot boxes just for a chance to get fragments to craft 1 piece of gear, not even a chance for the gear itself. Shields and teleports which are the main defense in war games as you grow had to be bought in 99$ Offers. They get you because you spend a ton of money and hit the point where you have to buy a pack or just quit. I had to spend 99$ so I could get the female avatar! It was so sexist only having men. I spent thousands easy and a friend I have kept in touch with spent close to 25k in those 6 months. He didn’t even have complete gear sets! I kept playing out of frustration thinking the developers would change things because it was so broken. You could email help and get a auto response that had absolutely nothing to do with your issue. Buy packs and get the wrong ones in your account. It was hands down a scam. I have played several war games and they are all greedy but none of them came close to FFXV. It was unplayable on the kindle but so expensive tons of players bought kindles just for discounted coin packages, then played the game on apple or android devices. Truly a game that takes advantage of people to extremes.
Both me and my husband have been taken by this game. You need to spend alot of money to compete and the game is not fair to small players. Packs that you purchase do go up in price and you are never offered the 4.99 or 19.99 price again its only 49.99 and 99.99 and does not have the items in the pack you thought you were buying
I’ve been playing this game for over a year I’ve had the same issue. After purchasing a game pack at 19.99 all the other packs jump up to 99.99 and hardly ever go back down. Forcing users to spend 99.99 multiple times to even survive in the game.
Not this particular mobile game, but I have been deceived by multiple ones featuring in app purchases that make lofty or misleading claims and would be interested in seeking out remedial options.