http://www.oxm.co.uk/68266/ea-hit-by-class-action-law-suit-over-bug-riddled-battlefield-4
As a result of Battlefield 4’s ongoing problems, and its affect on EA’s share price and projected financial results, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the publisher on behalf of stockholders.
The suit was filed via US law firm and financial fraud experts Robbins Geller, and calls into question EA’s handling of Battlefield 4’s launch and its subsequent attempts to rectify the situation.
It is alleged that EA talked up the quality of Battlefield 4 to investors in statements during the run-up to release, leading to a rise in stock price which allowed senior execs to sell their stock for an inflated amount.
“The price of Electronic Arts’ stock steadily climbed on these statements, reaching a Class Period high of $28.13 per share by August 23, 2013 and allowing certain of Electronic Arts’ senior executives to sell their Electronic Arts stock at artificially inflated prices,” it is alleged.
The pre-release statements of Battlefield 4’s quality are claimed to be “materially false and misleading because they failed to disclose and misrepresented the following adverse facts which were known to or recklessly disregarded.”
Here are the further allegations, laid out as it appears in the report:
(a) Battlefield 4 was riddled with bugs and multiple other problems, including downloadable content that allowed players access to more levels of the game, a myriad of connectivity issues, server limitations, lost data and repeated sudden crashes, among other things;
(b) as a result, Electronic Arts would not achieve a successful holiday season 2013 rollout of Battlefield 4;
(c) the performance of the Electronic Arts unit publishing Battlefield 4 was so deficient that all other projects that unit was involved in had to be put on hold to permit it to focus its efforts on fixing Battlefield 4; and
(d) as a result, Electronic Arts was not on track to achieve the financial results it had told the market it was on track to achieve during the Class Period.
Robbins Geller seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Electronic Arts common stock during the period in question. It's not the only suit filed against EA for Battlefield 4, either. Another claim by Holzer Holzer & Fistel alleges much the same.
