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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
Totally agree I have screen shots of events not working correctly people harassing me on there and only muted for 3 days I have paid to play and there response is that they can’t tell me anything… they never do anything about the ongoing harassing on the game. They also have Events that you can’t participate in unless you buy a pack for 99.99…. I have sunk so much money over four years I could a bought a house!
I can agree wholeheartedly with the above comments. I have been sucked into this game as well. I have thrown thousands of dollars away to this game. They are deceptive and dealing with their customer service is a joke. They will flat out lie to your face and tell you how wrong you are. They talk in circles in hopes to get you frustrated enough to just give up. This company and game is a joke!
Yes the game got my down-payment for house, they used great must have advertised sales, In reality you can’t do much with 100.00 dollar pack.
Without doubt all is true. I was billed five times for the same buy one get one pack. Then again and again. It is a huge fraud.
I myself have been through the ringer with this game along with many others in my guild. I have screenshots of several packs over the years that I have played this game that are misleading and do not actually give you whats advertised in the titles.
Also recently we also have evidence that proves that they knowingly allowed players from more advanced servers to join across them and give them a huge advantage. This was done to send massive amounts of resources that in the older servers are out of date but very hard to come by in ours. This has been going on for a long time and they have allowed it to happen to force others unreal amounts of money to not only keep up but to rebuild after being destroyed. After they acknowledged that this was indeed a problem and that those player do have an unfair advantage they did absolutely nothing to the players that cheated by cross server gifting. Those players are still allowed to continue playing with no consequences.
Feel free to email me @ superspeedmodz@gmail.com if you would like the screenshots that I have of them acknowledging this issue as well as screemshots of their shady packs.
Important to note many of the packs are based on luck % of winning items therefore can be considered gambling which as we know is illegal for certain age groups. Players also seem to get different items for the same price which shows bias to some players and therefore unfair play. There are also many packs that don’t apply the item and unless you are smart enough to take photos you are basically conned into assuming boosts like efficiency are working when they are not. Took me 35 emails to get support to apply my correct boost as my evidence was strong. I have a similar issue with comparison evidence from one account with another that efficiency hasnt been applied. They insist its working despite me proving it and now are completely ignoring me.
I too have been drawn into this game and spent a fortune over 3 years. As above the advertising is misleading and customer service is non existent. The friendships draw you back. There has to be AI involved in collecting your gaming habits and then used against you. I’m not American but a victim of this psy op as are many others.
Yes I agree with this totally.
I ended up in thousands of pounds of debt and I’m currently paying this off via an IVA over the next 6 years.
Yes its true the game is totally misleading, and makes you buy several of the same packs just to upgrade the 1 thing they promise in the first pack
I’ve been playing for a little over 3 years. I have several accounts. My main account is never offered the cheap packs that my farms are offered. Many packs are a bait and switch. Flashing headline shows 1 thing, but items in the pack are usually different. How do people outside of California join the suit?