John Kennedy filed his complaint against Sony Computer Entertainment America on October 3 in, where else, federal court for the Northern District of California. That would be San Francisco.
The suit’s complaint mentions two things: one, “that as a general rule, Sony ‘encourages’ PS3 owners to install the latest version of system software, Sony required users to install the Firmware 3.0 update”, and two: a Sony forum featured enough complaints about the Firmware causing console failures that Sony responded with a firmware FAQ.
At this point we put on our hushed baritone court-reporter fine-print voice: Class members demand declaratory relief, compensation and restitution for breach of implied warranty, negligence and unjust enrichment.
Firmware Update Borks PS3, Man Sues SCEA [Game Politics]
Johnnoz
October 6, 2009 at 4:15 PM
…why haven’t people tried this with nintendo yet?
Report PermalinkBen
October 6, 2009 at 4:25 PM
“breach of implied warranty”?
“purchased January 3, 2009″?
It should still be under warranty. So what’s the problem?
Report PermalinkTheD
October 6, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Good on him, if only more people had a brain and did not just bend down to the likes of sony and ms when (sony or ms) screws up.
Report Permalinkplmko
October 6, 2009 at 4:27 PM
Yes Sony promotes the upgrade of firmware, but the fact that when you update your PS3, under the policy agreement, Sony provides no warrenty or liabillty for any mishaps thay come from the firmware.
But then again if your just some retarded American with no life, why not sue, you lose nothing.
Report Permalinkoggob
October 6, 2009 at 4:35 PM
It will be thrown out straight away, like the guy that had his account banned…
Everything is in the Terms & Conditions that you agree to whenever you update to the latest firmware…
Report PermalinkSWulf
October 7, 2009 at 3:16 AM
Not true. Sony has been sued twice before for the same issue. Each time Sony settled siting the expense-not-guilt as the reason. This time will be the same. Scumbag economics: make a mistake, screw your customer base until it becomes cost-efficient to do the right thing. Bottom-line is the bottom-line at SCEA. Fuck ‘em. They deserve to be sued.
Report PermalinkMichael Cohen
October 6, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Nintendos upgrades only brick hacked/chipped Wiis, and have warnings telling them that it could happen to said fiddled with wiis.
Report PermalinkMikka
October 6, 2009 at 8:36 PM
the 4.2 updated all wiis, regardless of whether its been hacked or not. i follow the homebrew scene, and according to a certain group, it was nintendos fault that they released a system updater with a code so poorly written, they had to write their own code for a workaround for their releases instead of basing it on the source.
Report PermalinkMikka
October 6, 2009 at 8:39 PM
sorry, correction
Report Permalinkthe 4.2 update bricked a lot of wiis*
mambodog
October 8, 2009 at 3:59 AM
Not quite, mate. The boot2-reflashing code that all Wiis to date have shipped with, is buggy and can fail to write the new boot2 code in some cases. AFAIK having the homebrew boot2 (bootmii) actually fixes this. So yeah, its actually unmodified Wiis that are getting bricked.
Report Permalinkannonie
October 6, 2009 at 4:39 PM
OBJECTION! Good luck to him. During the update process Sony makes you agree that the update is your decision and they are not liable for issues.
Report PermalinkNicholas
October 6, 2009 at 4:44 PM
This guy is… awesome, maybe insane but awesome. Sony really need to pull their shit together with their updates. 3.01 is terrible on my brand new slim and due to a problem with their software I now have to delete my save progress and start LBP again if I want to collect trophies! FU Sony
Report PermalinkSteve
October 6, 2009 at 6:47 PM
What a load of bunkum. This guy alleges that Firmware 3.0 causes Blu-Ray drive failures. Rubbish!
Report Permalinkannonie
October 6, 2009 at 5:46 PM
I think every console in this generation has had a bricking firmware update. But it SHOULDNT happen. These things should be tested as they happen often and it means alot of consoles are at risk.
Report PermalinkOjin
October 6, 2009 at 5:47 PM
“Sony provides no warrenty or liabillty for any mishaps thay come from the firmware.” – Plmko, Oggob and anyone else who’s citing this… let me see if I get this straight.
Sony provides the console… and the update… but says that (their) update screws up (their) console, they aren’t liable… and you’re -fine- with this?
I don’t care if it’s Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Apple or anyone else that pull this kind of thing off, that kind of BS should never be acceptable. Their software, their hardware, their problem.
Now, if there’s more to the story we’re not seeing (Surely not!), then fine. But even though it’s unlikely this suit will succeed, there still needs to be something done about that kind of business practice, because no matter who does it, it’s pretty bad for the consumer if it happens.
Report PermalinkJAck
October 6, 2009 at 6:30 PM
The Wii 4.2 firmware update bricks Wii’s due to Nintendo f**king up the code to update boot2 to v4, this can happen regardless of whether the wii has been softmoded or mod chiped. Check out http://www.hackmii.com for further info .
Report Permalinkroboprez
October 6, 2009 at 7:05 PM
@Michael Cohen
No the Wii update DOES NOT ONLY brick hacked/chipped Wii’s. The update was made to delete homebrew that was found on the wii but because of buggy code (found on all wii’s) there is a chance of the Wii freezing halfway through the install. Abount the bit where it’s installing the IOS (think of a BIOS). Everything runs on top of the IOS even the system menu. Oh yes and just to prove how usefull the nintendo update was, everything that the update did has ALREADY been fixed by homebrewers!
In short nintendo’s code has a small chance of giving you a corrupt system, nothing to do with homebrew.
Report PermalinkAdam
October 6, 2009 at 7:33 PM
Why shouldn’t he sue?! If 3.0 did indeed brick his PS3, isn’t he entitled to a replacement? And just because Sony claim they’re not liable under their T&Cs, doesn’t make it so. A lot of clauses in T&Cs are actually illegal, and agreeing to them doesn’t suddenly make them legal, or give a company carte blanche to do anything they like.
Report Permalinkbrad
October 6, 2009 at 8:27 PM
funny thing here is, my ps3 sh!t itself today. its under 2 yrs old but out of warranty (obviously). i called them up and explained that it happened during the install of 3.01 and he said it had nothing to do with the update, it is a hardware failure. he then proceeds to tell me it will cost me AU$250 to fix. i eventually agree, after a short debate with him, to cough up the money. i then called the ocba and put it to them and they advised me to file it with the courts as less than 2 yrs is not a “reasonable” amount of time for it to last… considering sony themselves have, on numerous occasions, said that the console will have a 10 year lifespan. so by these standards i would have to buy 5 units? NO. i think not.
Report Permalinkso, considering it only costs $15 to lodge it with the courts i will be heading in there on thursday to get the ball rolling on a refund of the $250 plus any other costs that i may/will incur during what i think will end up being a pain in my a$$. but, i’d rather go down with a fight rather than just bend over and take it.
if anyone is interested, i will post along the way.
brad
DansDans
October 7, 2009 at 9:09 AM
Im interested – i had to pay $315 to get my YLOD fixed and I’m pissed about that. I would love my money back considering its caused by a manufacturing and hardware fault and nothing that I did to the machine
Report PermalinkRandyChimp
October 6, 2009 at 11:28 PM
My PS3 YLOD’ed itself on Friday, am I suing Sony? No, I bought 3 year warrenty from the shop when I bought my ps3 2 years ago, get over yourselves, these things happen, you’re just a complete pussy if you sit there moaning about it on a forum or comment board, and this guy suing sony is out of his mind, theres no way he’ll win.
Report PermalinkEl Phantasmogoro
October 7, 2009 at 5:06 PM
I got fucked because I payed for a product in good faith that it would perform its prescribed purpose for a reasonable length of time and it didn’t. I would be a crybaby if I didn’t just spend that money again on a product that will fail to meet expectations again!
Report PermalinkBrad
October 7, 2009 at 1:18 PM
After reading your post Brad I too am going to follow this up with the courts.
Report Permalink$250 is a rort for something that as the other poster said is supposed to have a 10 year life span. I went back to PC gaming because it is safer & there is something wrong when consoles are dyeing quicker than PCs.
p.s. Cool name ;-)