Slashdot Mirror
Judge Says EA Battlefield 4 Execs Engaged In "Puffery," Not Fraud
DemonOnIce writes with a story, as reported by Ars Technica, that a federal judge in San Francisco has dismissed a proposed securities fraud class action lawsuit connected to Battlefield 4's bungled rollout. From the report:
EA and several top executives were sued in December and were accused of duping investors with their public statements and concealing issues with the first-person shooter game. The suit claimed executives were painting too rosy of a picture surrounding what ultimately would be Battlefield 4's disastrous debut on various gaming consoles beginning last October, including the next-generation Xbox One. But US District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco said their comments about EA and the first-person shooter game were essentially protected corporate speak. "The Court agrees with defendants that all of the purported misstatements are inactionable statements of opinion, corporate optimism, or puffery," Illston ruled Monday.
The link in the summary leads to "Sapphire manufacturer and Apple agree to part ways “amicably”" GJ Editors
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) defined puffery as a "term frequently used to denote the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined."
The FTC stated in 1984 that puffery does not warrant enforcement action by the Commission. In its FTC Policy Statement on Deception, the Commission stated: "The Commission generally will not pursue cases involving obviously exaggerated or puffing representations, i.e., those that the ordinary consumers do not take seriously." e.g., "The Finest Fried Chicken in the World."
Source
In other words, caveat emptor.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
from ars technica...
Puffery is a well-defined term by the FTC, but still ends up as a "know it when you see it" thing sometimes. Here's an FTC handout discussing it with consumers. The basic point is that if a company says that something is generically awesome, that's probably just puffery and not actionable. If they use measurable numbers, talk about specifics, or directly compare it to one or more competitors, that can require proof and be actionable. Note that comparatives "our product A is better than B" are more likely to be actionable than superlatives "our product A is the best."
You know... I was downtown, selling some fine imported watches to passers by, and a police officer did not find my excuse of "Puffery" nearly as understandable as this judge seems to. Apparently Puffery isn't not allowed at $100, but is at $100million. Interesting indeed. I need to raise my price point!
Just like the gamers!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Corporations are not just people, but protected people now.
Table-ized A.I.
You mean Ringling Brothers ISN'T actually the greatest show on earth?
It sounds like something else in England. And something different again in Germany.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It's official. Doublespeak is now codified in law.
It's only fair. Law is encoded in Doublespeak.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Wow, the ability to come up with "he did it, but it' wasn't bad enough to warrant legal action" excuses has had a huge renaissance.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Nobody can dispute the error, but to assume you know what a person's job entails is asinine. Unless of course you can demonstrate what their contract contains to ensure that their only responsibility is as an editor.
As a guess, all of the Slashdot editors are editors for a few minutes a day (at most) and not provided time to fully research topics and validate content.
I don't expect them to lay out their job responsibility list any time a mistake happens and instead propose that instead of attacking a person, attack the management. Dice management has not done a very good job with other things (*cough* BETA! *cough*) so why would you assume they are doing well managing employee responsibilities?
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
For I too have, far too often, put some money into something EA said would be awesome and it turned out to be a pile of crap. With time, you'll learn to be suspicious of anything EA says. Next year when they do "Restockening, the Sequil", I assure you that it will suck every bit as much as the original did. If you wait a few months before buying, you might be able to pick their stock up cheap (or possibly even free) during a Steam sale. That's just how you need to play the game, if you don't want to waste your money.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The game is still a steaming pile of crap, I still warn people away from it and anything else that comes from that franchise ever again.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.