As you know there is a class-action suit that has been brought against both SEGA and Gearbox Software for falsely advertising Aliens: Colonial Marines by using fake demos at trade shows such as E3. Gearbox recently filed a request to get dropped from the lawsuit.
SEGA submitted their settlement agreement for approval on Monday for the class action settlement agreement. We won’t find out till September 17th if the courts will approve it.
Want to know how SEGA’s $1.25 million will be split up if this is approved? Hit the jump.
If approved:
- $312,500 covers attorney fees
- $200,000 will go to the plaintiff
- $734,500 will go to eligible customers of the game
The way that this will work (for the eligible customers of the game) is that if you bought the game before February 13, 2013 and you fill out their three question claim form you will be entitled to some money (that won’t exceed what you paid for the game). The issue is the more people that join the suit, the lesser money you will get.
Even though SEGA is agreeing to the settlement, they state that they still believe they are innocent and deny any wrongdoings. SEGA most likely wants to sweep this whole court thing under the rug by the time they launch Alien: Isolation.
The guys over at Polygon have a great breakdown of the whole lawsuit going on, check that out.
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Oh boy…That money could have been used to fund ‘Beyond Oasis 3’ or ‘Landstalker 2’.
Yup! Great comment, I’m with you.
Of course I am aware that this is ironic but those mentioned above are two of the series I’m most fond of, at least on MD.
Ah p.s. … a kind of sequel or remake for PSP of Landstalker was already in production several years ago and it was even shown a video, unfortunately, the game was later canceled.
I thought this was all Gearboxs’ fault, they were the ones who squandered most of the money Sega invested into the project by re-distributed it towards the development of Borderlands 2 weren’t they? It should be Gearbox that should be offering to pay up if so. Though it’s obvious why Sega want to just get rid of it all by paying for it even if they really were the innocent ones here.
It isn’t a lawsuit about if Gearbox made a shitty game, took money from SEGA or anything. Its about SEGA and Gearbox showing off false demos at E3 but selling the consumer a inferior product. You know, false advertisement.
Yeah, and as publisher, Sega is the one responsible for the marketing. So it makes sense that Gearbox shouldn’t have to pay out.
Sega essentially admitting wrongdoing though by paying out will likely get mixed reactions among the fanbase.
I think it is a step in the right direction even if they had to be legally coerced. I like how consumers took responsibility and fought against the corrupt industry.
What I do not like is how the attorney’s are making more than the actual plaintiff.
They say in the statement that they aren’t guilty but want it over.
Is this not mandated?
If it is mandated they are guilty. If it was an out of court settlement then it would have been a grey area. I don’t understand how they lose a case, agree to the courts orders and then say “oh, we want it over”.