Specifically it represents those who bought shares between July 24th and December 4th, and charges EA with ”violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.” Free game, quick!
EA bigwigs are accused of giving ”materially false and misleading statements” between these two dates, whereby they boasted of Battlefield 4’s technical prowess.
As many Battlefield 4 gamers know the launch of the latest instalment from DICE has been nothing short of disaster lurching to catastrophe. Today significant bugs and glitches remain with PS4’s launch crippled and Xbox One gamers denied their week exclusive release of China Uprising due to mishaps.
”Based on the purported strength of the Battlefield 4 rollout then underway, defendants issued strong fiscal 2014 financial guidance for the Company and actually increased that guidance on October 29, 2013. The price of Electronic Arts’ stock steadily climbed on these statements, reaching a Class Period high of $28.13 per share by August 23, 2013 and allowing certain of Electronic Arts’ senior executives to sell their Electronic Arts stock at artificially inflated prices.”
The foundation of the case is that Battlefield 4’s bug-riddled premiere crippled confidence in the series and sent share prices tumbling, costing investors some serious cheese.
”…On November 15, 2013, the day Sony released its new Play Station 4 (‘PS4’) console, it was disclosed that players of Electronic Arts’ games were being subjected to multiple glitches and significant crashes when attempting to play Electronic Arts’ titles on PS4,” reads the suit claim.
”The price of Electronic Arts stock fell on these disclosures, declining more than 7% from a close of $25.96 per share on November 14, 2013 to close at $24.06 per share on November 15, 2013. Then, on December 4, 2013, it was disclosed through discussions defendants had with video game bloggers that due to bugs, connectivity issues, server limitations, and various other problems plaguing Battlefield 4, Electronic Arts had been forced to indefinitely halt the Battlefield 4 rollout and other projects until the problems with Battlefield 4 could be fixed.”
”The price of Electronic Arts shares declined on this news from a close of $22.34 on December 4, 2013 to close at $21.01 on December 5, 2013, sending the share price down more than 28% from its Class Period high.”
EA has halted work on DLC and even Star Wars: Battlefront 3 at DICE until Battlefield 4 is in good shape.
The class action accuses EA, between July 24 and December 4, of providing statements ”materially false and misleading because they failed to disclose and misrepresented the following adverse facts which were known to or recklessly disregarded by defendants:”
”(a) Battlefield 4 was riddled with bugs and multiple other problems, including downloadable content that allowed players access to more levels of the game, a myriad of connectivity issues, server limitations, lost data and repeated sudden crashes, among other things;
“(b) as a result, Electronic Arts would not achieve a successful holiday season 2013 rollout of Battlefield 4;
“(c) the performance of the Electronic Arts unit publishing Battlefield 4 was so deficient that all other projects that unit was involved in had to be put on hold to permit it to focus its efforts on fixing Battlefield 4;
“and (d) as a result, Electronic Arts was not on track to achieve the financial results it had told the market it was on track to achieve during the Class Period.”
Battlefield 4 released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in October and on Xbox One and PS4 in November.
