Bethesda is currently in hot water over Fallout 4’s post-launch content. As a result, a class-action lawsuit is seeking to pull the brakes on Microsoft’s acquisition until the matter has been resolved.
A report from GamesBeat shows that the issue revolves around the game’s season pass, and how it is claimed to be of false advertisement, as it promised to include all post-launch DLC. The argument for it is in regards to the game's 'Creation Club', which is a selection of content that has been crafted by Bethesda themselves, as well other developers. It’s said that this additional content should have been included as part of the season pass.
The attorneys of the class-action lawsuit group known as The X-Law Group, Filippo Marchino and Thomas Gray, have said any additional content distributed by Bethesda should be included within the season pass as it breaches their initial promise. Marchino has claimed the Creation Club was paved as an artificial way of releasing another wave of downloadable content.
“They released a limited amount of DLC. Then they released a second wave of DLC, but decided to call it the Creation Club content and artificially removed it from the definition of DLC. Meaning that they promised people at the onset, we will give you everything we made. And then they reneged on that promise, and they did so to their benefit or the detriment of the plaintiffs. So that's where they did something wrong. They lied. They took money from gamers, and then they made more money.”
Marchino also reportedly told GamesBeat that they plan to stop the sale to Microsoft until the issue is resolved. The trial is planned to be done by 2022 and could potentially cost Bethesda $1.1 billion or more in damages.
“What we're going to try and do is go in and ask a judge to stop the sale between Microsoft and Bethesda to preserve the assets. And it's known as a motion for preliminary injunction.”
It’s unclear how this will affect the purchase as of yet, with a rumoured event speculated to be coming next month regarding the two companies. But, as one lawyer who spoke to GamesBeat has said, it will most likely end in a settlement rather than going to trial, so hopefully it won't have too much of an effect.
Are you excited to see Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda go through? Let us know in the comments below.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 15
I doubt this delays it...my guess is they are hoping bethesda/ms just pay up to drop the lawsuit...
@Terrin Yeah theres a deal to be had, no way these lawyers want the cost of taking on MS and Bethesda.
@Terrin it dose stink of that. Season passes list the content that's coming to it, they also added more content to the season pass if memory serves.
Surely they should be going after every company that also pulled a "Season Pass 2" I remember Borderlands 2 got a bunch of extra content not included in Season Pass
@abe_hikura they are using the original announcement of a season pass were they said all bethesda add ons are included in the season pass..
Which isn't wrong as all major updates where but using the smaller things a few people did in the community creation
@abe_hikura While I agree that will be the intent. It's reported here to be up to $1.1 billion in actual damages, (EDIT: the gamesbeat article also suggest up to a "$10.1 billion judgment" if punitive damages were awarded), which is not a small addition on top of the $7.5 billion they agreed to pay for Zenimax.
While it would be far less to settle out of court there's always the small chance that Microsoft doesn't finalise the deal if ANY of this has a chance of coming to pass.
What an absolute farce this lawsuit is, Americans will sue for anything and the description of the season pass always seemed to suggest we would get what was delivered.
Now that I've checked the article, it seemed this was based upon somebody buying the season pass in 2019, 2 YEARS after the creation club content was out and very clearly not included, frankly the guy was stupid to think it was includes and I doubt he dug up some years old blog post before buying it and if I was the judge I'd tell these chances to f*** off
As always some greedy nob trying to get money over ridiculous things
@StylesT Usually I would agree with you. There is far too much of it in general.
But in this case Bethesda made a big deal about selling the Season Pass specifically as "ALL of the Fallout 4 DLC we ever do for just $30" and "get the Fallout 4 Season Pass and get ALL Fallout 4 DLC for one S.P.E.C.I.A.L. price”. Note this was before they had even revealed what was in the Season Pass so it was in good faith that gamers purchased it rightfully expecting ALL of the DLC as promised.
Later Bethesda decided to add more DLC but to sell it separately calling it "Creation Club" which was mostly Bethesda made DLC with a few other content creators work. It was total BS.
To me this is pretty open and shut, there is so much evidence against them, but weaselly lawyers will be doing their best to get away from their promises. Personally I hope they are held accountable.
@carlos82 Completely disagree on this. Bethesda promised ALL the DLC as part of the season pass several times in their marketing, and then decided to sell mostly Bethesda made DLC separately via the "Creation Club".
This is not OK and they rightfully have a good chance of losing this. (They'll settle out of court I suspect and say they didn't lose as part of the settlement, usual legal weaselling)
@themightyant "Later Bethesda decided to add more DLC but to sell it separately calling it "Creation Club" [...]To me this is pretty open and shut"
It would only be "open and shut" if there was a legal definition of "DLC". Like it or not, it is just an arbitrary label. This will likely result just in a small settlement that will give players that bought the season pass, specifically before a list of what it included was entirely revealed, some credit towards future Creative Club content, and a few mill to the lawyers.
This is extremely unlikely to stop the acquisition.
Only reason this is likely to settle out of court is because a lengthy legal court case would be costly to both parties. Bethesda would lose more in legal fees than they would spend on a settlement, and the prosecution is unlikely to be awarded enough, IF they had a victory, to cover their own costs.
Edit to add:
Does not help prosecution case that the Creation Club itself is considered free "DLC" by Steam, and stuff you buy inside it is "IAP."
@Tharsman Completely agree on the likely outcome and reasoning - it is too costly for both parties - and I don't think it's likely to stop the acquisition, I only presented that as an outside possibility. (Plenty of M&A have stalled at the eleventh hour due to existing legal cases and additional financial baggage)
'If there was a legal definition of "DLC"' - this is exactly the sort of legal wrangling BS I was alluding to. Content Club content was, quite literally, content you download... downloadable content.... or DLC for short. ANYONE in games would call it that because that's what it was. There is no denying that with a straight face, though the lawyers will no doubt do an Olympian Gold level amount of mental and verbal gymnastics to try and get there.
Bethesda's marketing clearly, and proudly, on a number of occasions stated ALL FUTURE DLC would be included in the season pass and it simply wasn't.
Companies need to be called out and held accountable on this sort of *****. Words and promises mean something.
I actually agree with the claimants here. The same BS happened with Destiny and Halo Wars 2. They sold season passes then decided to change what the passes included after they were sold.
It's BS and it needs to stop.
I do agree with the claims. Anyone who thought Bethesda didn't do shady stuff didn't follow 76 and the "canvas" bag, or other shennanigans. They deserve to be attacked for this. But the sums of money are outrageous, and the lawyers bringing it up probably started their quest for riches before the MS announcement. Nobody rational would ever want to go up against MS/Google/Amazon/Apple lawyers. They have entire campuses built just to house the lawyers. And due to being at the end of a merger, you can bet MS legal is already handling this case internally for "free"....and that's not going to end well for the prosecution. MS may be more than willing to pony up a "shut up and go home before we destroy you" payment of a half bil or so.
@themightyant "DLC" is the wrong name too because in many cases the content is downloaded even if you don't buy it. Very often it's just part of a content patch you don't pay to download, but to access.
It has also become nearly industry standard to treat "items" that are almost always cosmetic but might be usable, as a separate class of item, or IAP unlockable, while DLC is reserved for story content, dungeons, entirely new game modes, and other beefier combined updates.
It's always been arguable and semantic driven. At some point DLC just sounded high tech and many in the industry just adopted it, but it's basically content expansions VS minor mods.
Honestly, I myself boght that season pass, and never expected it to apply to this mod store when it was anounced, even without clarification on its anouncement.
I personally won't be redeeming anything they say I have access too as a potentially affected party.
I almost feel like Minecraft Dungeons did something similar.
Hero Edition came out with base game & available DLC...
Then game was a big hit, so they announced a Season Pass (later).
It was just odd, because I bought the version (Hero) with everything. Till they changed their minds and added $20+ of extra DLC.
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