This action is ”meritless” says EA and one they’ll ”aggressively defend” against, and they’re confident the court will ”dismiss the complaint in due course.” Did execs artificially inflate shares?
As part of the class action, Robbins Geller asserts that EA bosses ‘mislead’ investors to drive up share prices and then went on to sell them before Battlefield 4 launched.
”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,” they wrote.
EA finds the class action’s claims without foundation. ”We believe these claims are meritless. We intend to aggressively defend ourselves, and we’re confident the court will dismiss the complaint in due course,” EA told Gamasutra.
The fallout from Battlefield 4’s launch has been far reaching within EA leading to work on DLC to be halted at DICE so more developers are retasked with fixing the glaring game faults. The studio even went on to publish a public bug tracker in a bid for transparency and to rebuild trust with fans.
It should be noted that this class action isn’t a rabble of disgruntled gamers throwing what they can and seeing what sticks to EA in court, but a potentially very powerful group of investors wanting their pound of flesh for ‘being duped’.
Whether senior executives at EA knew the sorry state Battlefield 4 was in or not, they’re being held responsible today.
