The law firm Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP (CSK & D) filed a class action lawsuit on February 12 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, USA, over the DualSense issue, a controller for PlayStation 5. That’s right. Foreign media GamesIndustry.biz and others have reported. CSK & D is also involved in a class action proceeding on Joy-Con for Nintendo Switch and the “drift problem” for Xbox controllers.
The drift problem in the game controller is a phenomenon like the image above where the stick input operation is performed even though the analog stick is not touched. Since it appears to be adrift, it is called “drift”, which means it is abroad. It is believed that something is wrong with the internal parts, and some users who have encountered the problem claim that it is a defect as a product. It has filed a class action proceeding against Nintendo and Microsoft.
The PS5 Dual Sense is also not free from the drift problem, and a class action proceeding has been filed against Lmarc Turner and a consumer in a similar situation. Earlier this month, CSK & D, the law firm in charge, was conducting a consumer survey on the Drift issue on DualSense and apparently decided it would be possible to file a case.
I have a complaintGamesIndustry.bizAccording to the plaintiffs, the drift phenomenon has affected the main features of DualSense. He also cited a case where the problem occurred only 10 days after purchase, claiming it was a defect as a product. Additionally, Sony has not disclosed this information to consumers, acknowledging this flaw, noting that the repair options for the problem at this time are also limited (scarce).
In these circumstances, the plaintiffs allege that Sony’s unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices have caused actual and de facto harm to DualSense owners, including the plaintiffs. Additionally, Sony is seeking monetary damages and injunctions for damages, claiming it violates relevant state law.
At this point, a class action proceeding has been filed and the court is expected to make a decision including whether you meet the requirements for a class action proceeding and whether it will promote a settlement.
By the way, in the case of the Xbox controller mentioned at the beginning, Microsoft is asking the court to go to an arbitration procedure with the terms of use of the product. In other words, the terms of use state that if there is a dispute between the company and a user residing in the United States, it will be resolved by arbitration rather than trial, and shows the premise that the user accepted this and used the product. That’s all.
Whether or not Microsoft’s request will be granted will wait for more news, but Sony has a similar license agreement, so it may also seek arbitration proceedings. Also related to this issue, Microsoft extended the covered driver’s warranty period from the previous 90 days to one year immediately after the class action lawsuit was filed ()Related article）。
The DualSense warranty period is also one year, but some support measures may be required, such as free repair from Nintendo (overseas) even after the warranty period. In either case, the focus will be on how the class action process presented this time will unfold.