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Sony Computer Entertainment America is facing a class action lawsuit over the resolution of Killzone Shadowfall's multiplayer component. The game is advertised as being native 1080p both online and on the game box but once it came out, Digital Foundry discovered that the multiplayer didn't actually run at the native full HD resolution.
The suit was filed by Californian resident, Douglas Ladore, who alleges that Sony falsely advertised the game's graphics and then “used a technological shortcut that was supposed to provide ‘subjectively similar' results.”
Back in March, Digital Foundry analyzed Killzone Shadowfall and found that the game's multiplayer ran at 960×1080 rather than the full HD standard, 1920×1080. After this discovery was made, Killzone developer, Guerrilla Games, posted the following explanation on its website:
“In both single-player and multiplayer, Killzone: Shadow Fall outputs a full, unscaled 1080p image at up to 60 frames per second. Native is often used to indicate images that are not scaled; it is native by that definition.”
“In Multiplayer mode, however, we use a technique called ‘temporal reprojection,' which combines pixels and motion vectors from multiple lower-resolution frames to reconstruct a full 1080p image. If native means that every part of the pipeline is 1080p then this technique is not native.”
The lawsuit takes advantage of this, alleging that ‘temporal reprojection' is not native 1080p and Sony has failed to change its marketing to reflect that. Other allegations involved in the lawsuit include: negligent misrepresentation, false advertisement, unfair competition and fraud in the inducement. The plaintiff is seeking a total of $5 million in damages.
This lawsuit is being carried out by law firm Edelson PC, which is responsible for the lawsuit against Sega and Gearbox Studios over Aliens: Colonial Marines. This isn't the firm's first time in a court room with Sony either, in 2011 the firm had filed a suit against Sony and EA as the company had promised to deliver a free copy of Battlefield 1943 to those who purchased Battlefield 3 for the Playstation 3 and failed to hold up the deal.
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KitGuru Says: While it may have disappointed some that Killzone's multiplayer wasn't native 1080p, I think a lawsuit is a bit over the top. However, I do agree that Sony shouldn't advertise the game's multiplayer as native 1080p if it doesn't actually run at that resolution. What do you guys make of this?
Source: Polygon
This is F-ed up. It’s just some random dude trying to make easy money. What will happen if he succeeds in court? Will other Killzone players ask for money if they have a precedent?
$5m in damages ? What fucking damages ? This type of behavior from this cunt is what’s giving the games industry a bad name, I hope he gets hit by a truck the next time he steps on the road.
@Dicehunter, while I understand where you’re coming from, wishing someone serious bodily injury is the kind of thing that a bully does. Are you a bully? Using foul language is a stylistic choice, so whatever. But wishing evil on someone crosses the line from private choices to choices that affect other people. This is why there are laws against threats of violence.
Does Kitguru condone this kind of language?
That out of the way, you’re missing the fact that it’s a class-action lawsuit. The “class-action” part means that anyone in that class of people (anyone who bought Killzone) gets a piece of that $5 million. I’m assuming that’s basically the purchase price multiplied by the number of copies sold. It’s totally reasonable to give the price of the game back to anyone affected by the “problem.” …and that’s where a judge will decide whether or not it’s really a problem.
The most interesting question to me is, how should consumers keep game companies honest? There’s two parts to that question. Firstly, Sony hasn’t actually broken any laws (AFAIK), so there’s nothing to be done legally. So if this behavior (misrepresenting the quality of the game) is undesirable, how ought consumers to put an end to that behavior, especially if they’ve already bought the game? EVERYONE take the game back, just because of this one little thing? I’m not sure, that also seems over the top.
Secondly, at what point do we, as consumers, hold companies accountable for shady practices? Do we have to wait for them to do something actually illegal, before we hold them accountable? Is it okay for them to use temporal reprojection, just so long as they don’t scale 720p to 1080p? How do we as consumers decide how far is “too far?”
Interesting questions that I don’t have the answers to, but I like watching the conversation.
What needs to be set up is an organisation that does this then takes the money (if they win) and put it in to pro gaming so that the money is given back to the gamer’s and no just wasted
Some of the comments here are freaking hilarious. This guy has all the right to sue Sony. Why? Because he bought something that was suppose to have something but in reality it does not have that thing. Consumers are so powerless that they have started to believe that suing a company is a bad thing. And some of you seriously need to Google “Class action lawsuit” before commenting.
Did they advertise 1920x1080p or 1080p? Technically, 960×1080 IS 1080p; 1080p refers to the horizontal lines of resolution that are in progressive scan, it is merely ‘assumed’ that 1080p ‘implies’ a full 1920x1080p resolution.
“Any display device that advertises 1080p typically refers to the ability to accept 1080p signals in native resolution format, which means there are a true 1920 pixels in width and 1080 pixels in height, and the display is not over-scanning, under-scanning, or reinterpreting the signal to a lower resolution”. So 960x1080p is NOT 1080p as it is not the standard.
It is a class action lawsuit. Meaning the money will probably be split with the consumers who bought the game.
Is false advertisement good for you? Do you want to buy products with missing features that were advertised and is part of the reason why you bought the product in the first place? Sony was being dishonest and you are mad at the guy who files a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT (might want to research that first before getting your panties up in a bunch)? Game companies/publishers with shady practices are giving the game industry a bad name and not those people who call them out on it.
My panties aren’t in a bunch princess, I just find stuff like this pathetic, And who in their right mind buys a game on the PS4 or XB1 expecting 1080P knowing full well neither console can properly output 1080P without frame dips and bad stutter and has to upscale from 720P.
Grow a backbone and some balls please darling it’s only a swear word and if that offends your sensibilities then you really shouldn’t step outside into the world because your going to get quite a shock.
It’s only a swear word and
if that offends your sensibilities then you really shouldn’t step
outside into the world because your going to get quite a shock.
dude you sound like a girl from christian sunday school and as has been said. please grow a pair. if your afraid to see a few cuss words on the internet then maybe you shouldn’t be using it
you sir or madam need to go get laid and please remove that massive stick from your arse whilst your at it
(OP) Lol, it’s so funny to watch you kids chase your own tails 😉
Not true. I have owned numerous TVs that were 1080p and advertised as such that DID NOT have 1920 vertical lines (ie. 1024x1080p). What I originally said is 100% correct. You just ‘assume’ like everyone else that 1080P means 1920×1080. Look it up. BTW, a ‘game’ is NOT a device. 😛