Patricia Resende, newsfactor.com Patricia Resende, newsfactor.com – Thu Apr 29, 6:05 pm ET
Sony Computer Entertainment is under fire by PlayStation 3 owners. A class-action suit has been brought against Sony for removing Linux support from PS3 consoles in its latest upgrade.
An attorney for PS3 owner Anthony Ventura filed the suit against Sony in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday after Sony removed support for Linux in its PlayStation 3.21 software update.
After Sony announced the update on March 28, unhappy PS3 owners took their frustrations to the web by flooding Sony's official PlayStation blog with angry comments. A total of 7,454 comments were posted as of Thursday. While some are upset with losing Linux support, others are more angry with Sony for removing a feature for which they paid.
Ventura, however, took his frustrations straight to a lawyer who filed the class-action suit on his behalf.
No Joke
PlayStation 3 owners were anticipating the PlayStation 3.21 upgrade slated for April 1, but thought Sony was playing an April Fools' Day joke when it said the upgrade would remove support for Linux.
Sony quickly warned users that the upgrade was no a joke and, in fact, was an attempt to protect the intellectual property of the content offered on the PS3 system as well as to provide a more secure system. PS3 owners who chose not to upgrade risked losing other PS3 features, according to Sony, including access to the PlayStation Network, newer games, and Blu-ray movies. Gamers who decided not to upgrade also risked losing playback of copyright-protected videos stored on a media server, the company warned.
If Judge Edward Chen allows the class-action suit, it would include all individuals who bought a PS3 between Nov. 17, 2006, and March 27, 2010, according to reports. The suit does not specify any amount in requested damages, but does state damages will not exceed $5 million.
The story went on to say that this is not the first lawsuit that Sony has had filed against them because of the PS3. They were sued previously because an update caused a person's system to malfunction. The author of the story also writes that she does not believe this will hurt Sony. What do you think? Do you guys think that this update is worth the unsatisfied customers? What do you think the repructions if any would be?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20100429/bs_nf/73070
2 comments:
I find that very interesting. Actually I have heard from a few of my friends who have PS3's who say that they are contently having issues with them. Some of my friends have said that theirs have completely stopped working. I think that PS3 is a very good console considering all the features it has and I alss think its Users would be happy to upgrade if it means that they will have a more dependable console.
While I can certainly understand why users would feel like they aren't receiving the product features they paid for, I think that this situation is fast comparing to Microsoft in their handling of the XBox 360. While it is a nice feature to be able to run the Linux OS on a gaming console for "cool" points, the simple fact remains: Buy a gaming console for the gaming and content. Buy a computer for running operating systems. Period. By running an unstable set of parameters on an otherwise stable system, it is impossible for Sony (or Msft) to manage and support the modified consoles or what these changes can do to their fairly stable online content structure.
Post a Comment