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Bethesda is embroiled in a new potentially billion-dollar lawsuit which could delay Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax

Delicieuxz

Bethesda faces broad class-action lawsuit over Fallout 4 DLC as Microsoft takeover looms

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Bethesda Softworks and its parent firm, ZeniMax Media, are about to face some uncomfortable questions in a class-action lawsuit about how they treated the loyal fans of the 2015 hit game Fallout 4. And that’s an annoying problem, as Microsoft is getting ready to buy Bethesda Softworks in a $7.5 billion acquisition.

 

While ZeniMax’s founder was a lawyer — the recently deceased Robert Altman — and was known for being litigious (ask former Oculus chief technology officer John Carmack), attorneys in the class-action say that they are shocked at some of the legal mistakes that Bethesda has made in the case involving the downloadable content (DLC) for Fallout 4. It isn’t yet clear how much financial exposure the company has, but the attorneys suing it say it’s a lot of money. It’s not unreasonable to think it could be a billion-dollar-plus liability, the lawyers claim.

 

A clarification there: Robert Altman was ZeniMax' co-founder, not sole founder. And he was basically a scumbag who stole the company from Bethesda's founder, Christopher Weaver. And his litigious and greedy nature while running ZeniMax / Bethesda is detailed here.

 

Continuing with another excerpt from the article:

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Over time, the Season Pass description consistently stated gamers would “get the Fallout 4 Season Pass and get all Fallout 4 DLC for one S.P.E.C.I.A.L. price.” It hasn’t been revealed how many people bought the DLC based on that promise, but the lawyers believe it was in the millions of players. Bethesda increased the price of the Season Pass to $50 in March 2016.

 

But on June 11, 2017, Bethesda announced something called Creation Club. The company characterized Creation Club as “a collection of all-new content for both Fallout 4 and [The Elder Scrolls V:] Skyrim. It features new items, abilities, and gameplay created by Bethesda Games Studios and outside development partners including the best community creators. Creation Club content is fully curated and compatible with the main game and official add-ons.”

 

While it sounded like “mods,” or community-created modifications for the game, it was really DLC, mostly created by Bethesda itself, said Filippo Marchino and Thomas Gray, attorneys at the class-action law firm The X-Law Group. Players like Jacob Devine of California thought they were entitled to that DLC, based on the promises that Bethesda made in the past. He bought a Season Pass in April 2019 at a GameStop store.

 

The lawsuit cites Bethesda's Fallout 4 season-pass advertising as stating:

 

“To reward our most loyal fans, this time we’ll be offering a Season Pass that will get you all of the Fallout 4 DLC we ever do for just $30. Since we’re still hard at work on the game, we don’t know what the actual DLC will be yet, but it will start coming early next year. Based on what we did for Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim, we know that it will be worth at least $40, and if we do more, you’ll get it all with the Season Pass.”

 

So, Bethesda initially promised that purchasers of the Fallout 4 season pass would get all DLC for the game for free. Then they betrayed that promise and made Fallout 4 season-pass purchasers have to pay more for a huge amount of Fallout 4's DLC.

 

Coincidentally, Bethesda did the same thing regarding Fallout '76, before switching Fallout '76's DLC to requiring micro-transactions at insane prices from Bethesda's paid-mods store. Could there be another lawsuit ready to go there? I don't recall whether Bethesda switched to the paid-mods MTX model for Fallout '76 before or after it launched. If was before, then they might be able to say they legitimately changed people's expectations ahead of their purchasing of the game. But if it was after, then it would likely be in the same boat as Fallout 4's paid-mods bait-and-switch and would be a good opening for another lawsuit against Bethesda.

 

 

 

Those are my most direct thoughts on the news article and the Bethesda-corruption it is about.

 

But I want to bring attention to the part of the article which says, "attorneys in the class-action say that they are shocked at some of the legal mistakes that Bethesda has made in the case involving the downloadable content (DLC) for Fallout 4".

 

I've expressed and emphasized in many posts on the LTT forums and elsewhere that the software industry has essentially created an imaginary legal regime where they claim all kinds of powers which they don't actually legally have, and that what software publishers claim regarding your and their rights, most of all in their EULAs, is typically ignorable because they just make it up and rely on the power of intimidation through a false appearance of authority to cultivate the perceptions and behaviours they wish to have from their customers.

 

I recently explained the phenomena of the mostly-fake legal regime software publishers (and many developers) have bought into like this:

On 2/1/2021 at 5:43 AM, Delicieuxz said:

The more that the law, or any sector, is confined to just those practising it, the more it succumbs to club mentality and becomes a sub-environment in which the participants develop and start conforming to scene conventions that they created themselves but which aren't actually official, legal, and authoritative - but they might speak as if they are and try to intimidate others with them and impose them on others. They also might come to believe their conventions are actual legal reality - and this is a widespread issue within the software industry.

 

Currently, publishers, and I think many industry lawyers, still feel very empowered and puffed-up by a sense that they have some exclusive access and are the club rules / that being in the club means that the rules are as they have been taught to interpret them or as they prefer to tell others they are. And that's something to keep in mind when listening to what they have to say.

 

And, deservedly, they keep receiving severe smack-downs by courts around the world.

 

The legal team bringing this new class-action lawsuit against Bethesda say Bethesda's legal practices have been shocking in their flagrant non-legality. But there are equally 'shocking' practices to be found all over the gaming industry, which has built and conducted itself upon what I think is a legal house of cards. And they did it simply because they followed a monkey-see / monkey-do approach to earlier publishers, who themselves were rarely challenged on anything they did, no matter how unlawful and abusive it was.

 

Consequently, I think that the realm of software publisher pseudo-legal dogmas is ripe for the plundering. They've avoided lawsuits just because they haven't been examined by more skillful lawyers in other legal sectors who understand the law as it's meant and applied everywhere else better than the software industry has imagined and pretended it to be.

 

 

Additionally, even if a software industry knows that the law isn't what they're claiming it to be in EULAs or similar, the fact that their job is a hired advocate for their publisher employer means it's very likely to probably that they won't tell you the truth anyway, because that would be contrary to what their job is to do. A lawyer is not a legal truth-teller, but is an advocate for hire - which often means that they're a liar for hire, lying for the benefit of their employer.

 

And here's some research about that: UMass researcher finds most people lie in everyday conversation

 

Starting from the unfortunate perspective that most people are liars, then look at where the biggest and worst liars are concentrated in society: The Top 10 Jobs That Attract Psychopaths

 

The profession with the highest concentration of psychopaths (having no compunction about lying, especially when it profits oneself, to lie being a key trait of a psychopath) is that of a CEO. And the second most-populated-by-psychopaths profession is that of a Lawyer. So, in software industry pseudo-legal-speak, there are layers of maximum-intensity ruthless willingness to lie and deceive to get a desired outcome that benefits the publisher. And in ZeniMax / Bethesda's case, their CEO was a lawyer from the dirtiest pool of dirty-politics lawyers, and one which exemplified the greedy and selfish tendencies that give CEOs, lawyers, and big publishers their deservedly-bad reputations.

 

Media Personality and Journalist are also among the top 10 professions most-populated by psychopaths (AKA pathological and unrepentant liars) - I want to point that out while on the topic of who not to trust.

 

 

The lesson here is, from my perspective, don't just accept what a software industry lawyer claims the law is (maybe consider suing their employer, instead). They're usually either clueless themselves and spouting a nonsensical dogma and industry-bubble convention that doesn't actually register as real in the law and courts, or they're deliberately lying to protect their employers, their industry, their professional reputations, and their personal profits from their profession. A lawyer who makes a lot of money by writing EULAs isn't going to easily concede that what they're doing and have been doing is playing pretend with themselves and their employers - doing so would hurt their pride and their wallets when they stop being hired to write EULAs which are legally completely meaningless and irrelevant regarding software which you've purchased.

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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So all of the claims about "Bethesda really screwed up, boy howdy, they could owe a bajillion dollars" are from the attorneys on the other side?

 

Yeah OK.

 

This isn't going to impact the Microsoft acquisition at all.

Corps aren't your friends. "Bottleneck calculators" are BS. Only suckers buy based on brand. It's your PC, do what makes you happy.  If your build meets your needs, you don't need anyone else to "rate" it for you. And talking about being part of a "master race" is cringe. Watch this space for further truths people need to hear.

 

Ryzen 7 5800X3D | ASRock X570 PG Velocita | PowerColor Red Devil RX 6900 XT | 4x8GB Crucial Ballistix 3600mt/s CL16

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25 minutes ago, Middcore said:

So all of the claims about "Bethesda really screwed up, boy howdy, they could owe a bajillion dollars" are from the attorneys on the other side?

 

Yeah OK.

 

This isn't going to impact the Microsoft acquisition at all.

I think you haven't given it the thought it's warranted.

 

If the lawyers presenting the case seek $1 billion or more in compensation, then that's the potential cost of the lawsuit.

 

If Microsoft completes the purchase of ZeniMax now, then, should Bethesda ultimately lose this lawsuit, Microsoft will be on the hook for potentially another billion dollars on top of what they would have already paid for ZeniMax. That would mean that Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda changed from a $7.5 billion acquisition to an $8.5 billion acquisition. And that's a big difference.

 

But if Microsoft waits for the lawsuit to play-out before completing the acquisition, the cost of the lawsuit would be the responsibility of ZeniMax' current owners, and they would then have to bear the potentially billion-dollar loss before selling the company to Microsoft.

 

There are other possibilities, such as settling out-of-court so that Microsoft's acquisition can proceed without delay, or Microsoft reaching a deal with ZeniMax' current owners whereby Microsoft completes the purchase now and should the lawsuit be lost, then the current owners will be responsible to cover the court's judgment.

 

But I don't get how you assume that the case doesn't stand to impact Microsoft's acquisition of the company. Because it possibly can.

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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Your post has two main points: 

 

1. "Here's a bunch of stuff being claimed by the lawyers suing Bethesda/Zenimax."

 

2. "Lawyers are basically all a bunch of sociopathic liars." 

 

Maybe you haven't given this the amount of thought it warrants. 

Corps aren't your friends. "Bottleneck calculators" are BS. Only suckers buy based on brand. It's your PC, do what makes you happy.  If your build meets your needs, you don't need anyone else to "rate" it for you. And talking about being part of a "master race" is cringe. Watch this space for further truths people need to hear.

 

Ryzen 7 5800X3D | ASRock X570 PG Velocita | PowerColor Red Devil RX 6900 XT | 4x8GB Crucial Ballistix 3600mt/s CL16

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18 minutes ago, Middcore said:

Your post has two main points: 

 

1. "Here's a bunch of stuff being claimed by the lawyers suing Bethesda/Zenimax."

 

2. "Lawyers are basically all a bunch of sociopathic liars." 

 

Maybe you haven't given this the amount of thought it warrants. 

 

I again think you haven't given your comment the thought it's warranted:

 

Regardless of what many lawyers are and their trustworthiness is, this is a real legal case that will take real time to go through the court and will have a real verdict one way or the other, with one of the real ways the verdict can go being that Bethesda, or whoever owns it at the time of the verdict, is on the hook to pay damages that could be in the range of a billion dollars. If Microsoft completes the transaction right now, then the responsibility for defending against the lawsuit falls to Microsoft and Microsoft runs the risk of being on the hook for whatever damages are required of Bethesda / ZeniMax.

 

First, it's confirmed that Bethesda made the promise that the legal team accusing them in this case says they did. So, there's no question of whether the accusation is true or not. But even if the legal team making the case were BSing, their case would still be a lawsuit that would still carry a real risk of an expensive loss for the owner of Bethesda. So, the trustworthiness of lawyers in general doesn't impact the stakes and what Microsoft has to take into account in their decision to proceed with the acquisition as things stand.

 

And my comments in the OP about abusive software industry pseudo-legal practices doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a legitimate legal case - especially when it comes to bringing a legal case against a big publisher who has been engaging in abusive pseudo-legal practices. I thought that didn't need stating.

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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If I had a dollar for every time I've seen gamers rabble rabble about "we should file a class action", I'd be a rich man. Can anybody site a single case where a game publisher actually paid out in a class action to aggrieved players? 

 

19 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

this is a real legal case that will take real time to go through the court and will have a real verdict one way or the other

 

What does "a real legal case" mean? You know someone can pay a lawyer to file a lawsuit over just about anything, right? 

 

Let's find out more about the top-tier legal minds handling this case on behalf of the wronged FO4 players, shall we? 

 

http://thexlawgroup.com/

 

They're "a professional corporation," guys. Legit! 

 

Did you notice this case was filed in July 2019? Pretty sure Microsoft would have been aware of it when they agreed to make the buyout. 

 

Corps aren't your friends. "Bottleneck calculators" are BS. Only suckers buy based on brand. It's your PC, do what makes you happy.  If your build meets your needs, you don't need anyone else to "rate" it for you. And talking about being part of a "master race" is cringe. Watch this space for further truths people need to hear.

 

Ryzen 7 5800X3D | ASRock X570 PG Velocita | PowerColor Red Devil RX 6900 XT | 4x8GB Crucial Ballistix 3600mt/s CL16

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37 minutes ago, Middcore said:

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen gamers rabble rabble about "we should file a class action", I'd be a rich man. Can anybody site a single case where a game publisher actually paid out in a class action to aggrieved players?

The first sentence in your paragraph identifies gamers calling for a class-action lawsuit - not necessarily one actually taking place. The second sentence relies on class-action suits which actually took place resulting in a win for the gamers.

 

I think the challenging part is identifying class-action lawsuits against publishers by gamers which actually took place and weren't just people saying there should be a class-action lawsuit. But regarding Bethesda being sued, this is a class-action lawsuit that is actually happening.

 

Certainly, publishers have lost class-action suits they were hit with in the past:

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9611229

https://zmclp.com/news/take-two-interactive-software-inc-announces-preliminary-settlement-of-consumer-class-action/

 

But most class-action lawsuits from gamers that I recall are currently in the process of happening, and aren't finished. That's because publishers have become more aggressive with their abusive practices lately (especially with the advent of micro-transactions, loot boxes, and subscription gaming), and because gamers are becoming more experienced, familiar and fed-up with abusive publisher practices, while there are also more eyes on the legal practices of publishers as the software industry isn't the isolated bubble that it once was.

 

https://www.cbr.com/cyberpunk-2077-second-lawsuit/

https://calvinayre.com/2020/08/18/business/loot-boxes-called-gambling-in-5m-class-action-lawsuit-against-ea/

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-02-15-first-ps5-drift-class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-sony

 

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What does "a real legal case" mean? You know someone can pay a lawyer to file a lawsuit over just about anything, right?

A real legal case is a real legal case - as in, one that actually factors into reality and so will require Microsoft to do that factoring in their decision of how to proceed with their planned acquisition of ZeniMax.

 

That people can file a lawsuit over anything is neither here nor there. When a lawsuit has been filed, it becomes a real factor for those who are affected by it. And in this case, the accusation of the lawsuit, that Bethesda promised something, is true. So, there aren't immediately-apparent grounds to think this lawsuit is bogus and without merit.

 

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Let's find out more about the top-tier legal minds handling this case on behalf of the wronged FO76, shall we? 

 

http://thexlawgroup.com/

 

They're "a professional corporation," guys. Legit! 

 

Did you notice this case was filed in July 2019? Pretty sure Microsoft would have been aware of it when they agreed to make the buyout. 

Are you a passionate fan of Bethesda or Microsoft, and that's why you're aiming to just mock the case and the risk it might pose to the acquisition plan? I don't get what your huge issue with it is. What you think about the professionality of the legal team is of no consequence to the fact that there's a real legal case in process that could impact the price of the acquisition for Microsoft.

 

We can also mock Bethesda's defence against the accusation: "On its face, Bethesda’s defense is that the new content wasn’t DLC."

 

Somehow, Bethesda will have to argue that literal downloadable content, created by Bethesda for Fallout 4 and sold through their paid-mods store, isn't downloadable content for Fallout 4 despite that it is downloadable content that is created by Bethesda for Fallout 4.

 

Bethesda's advertisement for the Fallout 4 season pass was this:

 

“To reward our most loyal fans, this time we’ll be offering a Season Pass that will get you all of the Fallout 4 DLC we ever do for just $30. Since we’re still hard at work on the game, we don’t know what the actual DLC will be yet, but it will start coming early next year. Based on what we did for Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim, we know that it will be worth at least $40, and if we do more, you’ll get it all with the Season Pass.”

 

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Bethesda wishes millions of people had bought FO76 at all, let alone a season pass. 

The class-action lawsuit is regarding Fallout 4, not Fallout '76. The article states that Fallout 4 sold an estimated 13.5 million copies.

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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14 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

 

This is a class-action by employees/contractors, not customers. 

 

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Lol this was people saying "I am shocked and offended someone made a nude mod for GTA, give me $$$ for my emotional distress." Not exactly making class actions by gamers look more credible. But sure, I'll give it to ya. 

 

 

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A real legal case is a real legal case - as in, one that actually factors into reality and so will require Microsoft to do that factoring in their decision of how to proceed with their planned acquisition of ZeniMax.

 

And again, this lawsuit was filed well before the deal between Microsoft and Zenimax was made and announced. It's not a new thing. Are you suggesting that a company the size of Microsoft with all of the legal resources at their disposal just failed to notice it? 

 

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Are you a passionate fan of Bethesda or Microsoft, and that's why you're aiming to just mock the case and the risk it might post to the acquisition plan?

 

No. I merely find clickbait articles from tech industry sites tedious, and I find the idea that Microsoft is in any way concerned about this risible. 

 

 

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What you think about the professionalness of the legal team is of no consequence to the fact that there's a real legal case in process that could impact the price of the acquisition.

 

My opinion on the caliber of the lawyers bringing the case is a significant factor in how seriously I take the case and how likely I think it is to be successful. 

 

 

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The class-action lawsuit is regarding Fallout 4, not Fallout '76. The article states that Fallout 4 sold an estimated 13.5 million copies.

 

I know it's about FO4, I took a cheap shot at FO76 as a joke but I edited my post and deleted it because it wasn't really relevant. 

Corps aren't your friends. "Bottleneck calculators" are BS. Only suckers buy based on brand. It's your PC, do what makes you happy.  If your build meets your needs, you don't need anyone else to "rate" it for you. And talking about being part of a "master race" is cringe. Watch this space for further truths people need to hear.

 

Ryzen 7 5800X3D | ASRock X570 PG Velocita | PowerColor Red Devil RX 6900 XT | 4x8GB Crucial Ballistix 3600mt/s CL16

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I've also edited additional information into my previous post from the time when you quoted it.

 

29 minutes ago, Middcore said:

Lol this was people saying "I am shocked and offended someone made a nude mod for GTA, give me $$$ for my emotional distress." Not exactly making class actions by gamers look more credible. But sure, I'll give it to ya. 

That goes to show that even a silly accusation, one which we might find not worth compensation, can pose a very real legal threat.

 

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And again, this lawsuit was filed well before the deal between Microsoft and Zenimax was made and announced. It's not a new thing. Are you suggesting that a company the size of Microsoft with all of the legal resources at their disposal just failed to notice it? 

I don't know what Microsoft knew or thought about it previously. I don't also know what the status of the lawsuit was when Microsoft agreed on their deal with ZeniMax and whether there was an estimate of damages sought from the suit at the time, and whether Bethesda or Microsoft thought the case might actually go to trial.

 

The article says that the plaintiff is seeking to get an injunction against the sale of Bethesda to Microsoft, to preserve the game assets as they are now.

 

 

From the article:

 

But Marchino is concerned that Bethesda will use the same tactics related to the class-action lawsuit, transferring its assets to another company or Microsoft, and then leaving another empty shell. That’s why Marchino has filed papers to seek more information, and if necessary, to block Microsoft’s $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda.

 

“We have a very big concern. Because this class action we’re engaged in is a proverbial bet the company litigation, meaning that the value of a judgment could end up being greater than the assets,” Marchino said. “It’s curious to us that, all of a sudden, there is this rush to sell. It liquidates the company, and it prevents the millions of people that are members of the class from recovering money.”

 

During the case, the plaintiffs asked if Bethesda was amid an acquisition. Two months before the big deal was announced, they received an answer from Esquenet, the outside attorney for Bethesda.

 

She replied in a letter on July 10, 2019, saying, “With respect to the alleged sale of Bethesda, your letter is nothing but rank speculation and suspicion (apparently tracing back to some third-party report referencing unconfirmed ‘high-level, informal talks’), and the relief you seek is not grounded in reality and lacks merit. You have failed to provide any credible evidence of any impending sale or asset transfer, much less that anyone at Bethesda is allegedly plotting to commit fraud and/or dissipate assets to avoid some hypothetical, non-existent future judgment (which of course is not the case). Moreover, the discovery you are seeking is intrusive, irrelevant to any claims in the case, and is an attempt to harass Bethesda and its management.”

 

Marchino said it was odd that less than two months later, the acquisition agreement was announced.

 

Marchino added, “What we’re going to try and do is go in and ask a judge to stop the sale between Microsoft and Bethesda to preserve the assets. And it’s known as a motion for preliminary injunction.”

 

 

 

The article also says concerning when the case might go to trial and the potential billion-dollar damages figure:

 

A trial might happen by 2022, but the risks are clear, given the pending acquisition. If the actual damages alone are considered, and the number of players owed the money is somewhere around four million (not unreasonable given the total population of more than 13.5 million), then the actual damages could be $1.1 billion. If punitive damages are awarded, the amount could be multiple times that amount.

 

“I just can’t imagine a judge ordering, or even a jury, really, approving the award of billions dollars with respect to virtual downloadable content,” Hoppe said.

Hoppe said he doesn’t think that either side wants this to go to trial, and he believes a settlement is likely.

 

...

 

“It’s a multibillion-dollar lawsuit, depending on the factor of the punitive damages,” Marchino said. “Even a conservative multiplier of four or five times the damages would yield multibillions of dollars in damages. We can’t reveal the exact number of people that bought the season pass, but you know that it is a substantial portion of the people that bought the game.”

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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22 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

She replied in a letter on July 10, 2019, saying, “With respect to the alleged sale of Bethesda, your letter is nothing but rank speculation and suspicion (apparently tracing back to some third-party report referencing unconfirmed ‘high-level, informal talks’), and the relief you seek is not grounded in reality and lacks merit. You have failed to provide any credible evidence of any impending sale or asset transfer, much less that anyone at Bethesda is allegedly plotting to commit fraud and/or dissipate assets to avoid some hypothetical, non-existent future judgment (which of course is not the case). Moreover, the discovery you are seeking is intrusive, irrelevant to any claims in the case, and is an attempt to harass Bethesda and its management.”

 

Marchino said it was odd that less than two months later, the acquisition agreement was announced.

 

The announcement of Bethesda being acquired by Microsoft was in September 2020 which is a year and 2 months after that letter.

 

 

The most this class action will lead to is settling for a miniscule amount that will mostly go to the lawyers and the people that feel like they were ripped off will get next to nothing but it's more likely that it will go nowhere.
Also the plaintiff is just wrong about things like "had to buy another season pass". There is no season pass for Creation Club content and also at the time he bought the season pass it was very clear about what it included and arguably even before then:

2b2cf0ada98eaded69ca21441bb4b6ec.png

 

This screenshot was taken in early 2016 and clearly states that the season pass includes "all add-ons" not "all DLC", while it can be argued that they are the same thing to you or I Bethesda has never called any of the Creation Club items add-ons and reserved that term solely for the larger expansion packs included with the season pass which would help their defence if this ever goes to court.

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45 minutes ago, NovaFinch said:

The announcement of Bethesda being acquired by Microsoft was in September 2020 which is a year and 2 months after that letter.

The July 10, 2019 date mentioned in the article appears to be a typo. It should probably read July 10, 2020.

 

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Also the plaintiff is just wrong about things like "had to buy another season pass". There is no season pass for Creation Club content and also at the time he bought the season pass it was very clear about what it included and arguably even before then:
 

This screenshot was taken in early 2016 and clearly states that the season pass includes "all add-ons" not "all DLC", while it can be argued that they are the same thing to you or I Bethesda has never called any of the Creation Club items add-ons and reserved that term solely for the larger expansion packs included with the season pass which would help their defence if this ever goes to court.

The case is based on Bethesda's marketing which does use the term "DLC", and which is quoted all over the place online:

 

“To reward our most loyal fans, this time we’ll be offering a Season Pass that will get you all of the Fallout 4 DLC we ever do for just $30. Since we’re still hard at work on the game, we don’t know what the actual DLC will be yet, but it will start coming early next year. Based on what we did for Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim, we know that it will be worth at least $40, and if we do more, you’ll get it all with the Season Pass.”

 

https://gamerant.com/fallout-4-season-pass-dlc-957/

https://wccftech.com/fallout-4-season-pass-details-surface-price-content-future/

https://www.xboxachievements.com/forum/topic/421358-launch-and-beyond/

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/xba_console/fallout-4-special/00f24794-02d3-4371-b7ae-2490b6072432

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/fallout_4_dlc_being_teased_by_todd_howard/1

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-09-fallout-4s-big-season-pass-promise

https://www.cinemablend.com/games/Bethesda-Has-Big-Plans-Fallout-4-Launch-84387.html

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/523897023722963108/

https://metro.co.uk/2015/09/09/fallout-4-season-pass-costs-30-for-all-dlc-5383941/

https://www.unigamesity.com/bethesda-reveals-fallout-4-season-pass-mod-creation-kit-coming-early-2016/

http://powerupgaming.co.uk/2015/09/09/fallout-4-bethesda-announces-30-season-pass-doesnt-know-what-the-dlc-will-include/

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/fallout-4-bethesda-reveals-season-pass-dlc-plans-ps4-xbox-one-pc-1519104

https://www.bluesnews.com/s/164931/fallout-4-mod-dlc-plans

 

And it's quoted on many, many more sites that those, including reddit and other social media sites.

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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Here's the cited promise by Bethesda still on their website:

 

https://bethesda.net/en/article/2RAO5fYPkcUC0i8KMkyOS/fallout-4-launch-and-beyond

 

429025369_BethesdaFallout4DLCpromise.thumb.PNG.001064185ad670975e68f40a4f9bc825.PNG

 

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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Here's are clear examples of Bethesda calling Fallout 4 Creation Club content DLC:

B1m3vAz.png

 

Though, I don't think it really matters what Bethesda wants to frame their paid-mods-store content as - content for a game that is downloadable add-on content is literally downloadable content for a game.

 

 

19 hours ago, Middcore said:

And again, this lawsuit was filed well before the deal between Microsoft and Zenimax was made and announced. It's not a new thing. Are you suggesting that a company the size of Microsoft with all of the legal resources at their disposal just failed to notice it? 

Just to clarify, the answer to that question, according to the lawyer quoted in the article, could be that Bethesda planned to offload their assets to Microsoft and leave the company an empty shell that had nothing to pay-out should it lose a legal fight:

 

"But Marchino is concerned that Bethesda will use the same tactics related to the class-action lawsuit, transferring its assets to another company or Microsoft, and then leaving another empty shell. That’s why Marchino has filed papers to seek more information, and if necessary, to block Microsoft’s $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda."

You own the software that you purchase - Understanding software licenses and EULAs

 

"We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the american public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987

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22 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

Starting from the unfortunate perspective that most people are liars, then look at where the biggest and worst liars are concentrated in society: The Top 10 Jobs That Attract Psychopaths

As elected politician is not on that list as an individual option, it is invalid. Even without it being a separate category civil servant still makes number 10.

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