The lawyers behind a class action lawsuit against Sony over deceptive advertising for the PlayStation Vita have launched a website for potential claimants to sign up in order to collect their award. Anyone who purchased a PlayStation Vita before June 1, 2012 and who has not returned it for a full refund is entitled to part of the FTC-mandated award. If you qualify, head over to VitaClaims.com to fill out the form.
Eligible claimants must fill out the form by June 29, 2015 in order to collect. They will be asked to provide their Vita’s serial number, which will be used to verify its date of purchase. Then they will have a choice of how they wish to be compensated: a $25 check, $25 in credit for the PlayStation Store, or one of three bundles of games for the PS3 and Vita, with combined retail values (helpfully included) of over $50:
- Action/Adventure: God of War Collection, Beyond: Two Souls, Twisted Metal, Unity 13 ($92.95)
- Family Friendly: LittleBigPlanet 2, Puppeteer, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, ModNation Racers: Road Trip ($100.46)
- Variety Pack: God of War Collection, LittleBigPlanet 2, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, Unit 13 ($66.46)
The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Sony in 2014 over deceptive claims concerning the PlayStation Vita’s “game-changing” capabilities, made in advertisements leading up to the handheld’s launch in 2012. The pre-launch advertising, which included the commercial below, exaggerated the system’s remote play and cross-save integration with the PlayStation 3, implying that these features would be generally available. In reality, “this feature … was only available for a few PS3 games, and the pause-and-save capability described in the ads varied significantly from game to game,” according to the FTC complaint.
The above commercial shows someone pausing his game of MLB 12: The Show on PS3 and immediately picking it up on his Vita while heading to work. In reality, the only way to transfer a save over was after completing all nine innings of a game. Sony’s advertisements also failed to make clear that in order to use the feature, the player needed to purchase the game separately on each respective platform. Cross-Buy has subsequently become a more common feature of games released on multiple Sony platforms, but it was not standard at the time.
