Law Firm Launches PS5 DualSense Action Against Sony • Eurogamer.net

A US law firm has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony over alleged PlayStation 5 DualSense power.

This week, Chimicles asked Schwartz Kriner and Donaldson-Smith (CSK & D), the firm behind the ongoing class action lawsuit against Nintendo over Joy-Con drift, to contact affected customers via an online form.

Clearly, that call to action did the trick. The DualSense case has now been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of a plaintiff named Lmarc Turner, of Virginia, and other U.S. customers affected by Sony Corporation of America and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The complaint, lodged on February 12 and seen by Eurogamer, claims that the DualSense is ‘defective’.

“Specifically, the DualSense controllers used to operate the PS5 contain a flaw that causes characters or gameplay to move on the screen without the user’s joystick being commanded or used manually.

“This flaw significantly impedes the game and therefore impairs the core functionality of the DualSense controller.”

The complaint cites several online reports of DualSense drift on reddit and social media, including the following tweet which contained a grip of apparent drift while playing Rogue Company:

Gyro in PS5 road is a very clear improvement over DS4, but … It randomly floats in it. Just enough to miss the initial shot completely. # PS5Share, #RogueCompany pic.twitter.com/UiNjzBJz3W

– Nalverus (@Nalverus) 5 February 2021

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The complaint accuses Sony of being aware of this alleged DualSense drift via online consumer complaints, claiming that the company equipped the DualSense with ‘virtually the same analog components’ as the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4, which allegedly also suffered from drift. has, and that recovery options are “slim”.

“Customers experience long wait times and have to deal with a maze of preset phone calls before finally talking to an agent about the repair to DualSense controller,” reads the complaint, which points out that customers have to pay for sending the controller to a Sony repair center, even for repairs that are under warranty.

Turner allegedly bought a PS5 on February 5, 2021, and experienced DualSense drift on the same day. He contacted Sony’s customer service and was advised to repair his console, which is not working. Turner finally bought another DualSense controller a few days later that cost $ 69.99.

“If the plaintiff had taken note of the deviation error before buying his PS5, he otherwise would not have bought the PS5, or he would have paid significantly less for it,” the complaint reads.

According to the complaint, Turner agreed to Sony’s PlayStation terms of service and user agreement at the launch of its PS5, but he told Sony that he intends to resolve the dispute with the company through individual arbitration.

This is an important point in the context of CSK & D’s ongoing case against Nintendo over Joy-Con drift. CSK & D filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo of America in the U.S. District Court of Washington in 2019 over Joy-Con drift following a similar call to the customers involved. The court forced the case to arbitration, although it refused to dismiss the case. CSK & D says they are currently pursuing the case through the arbitration process. Clearly, this is hoping to keep us on track with the DualSense case.

The complaint demands a jury trial, with the plaintiff seeking monetary relief ‘for damages suffered, declaratory relief and public order’. Sony has not yet commented.

The driver’s power has become a major issue over the past few years. There’s an ongoing class action lawsuit against Microsoft for ‘stick drift’ on Xbox One controllers, which also specifically refers to the company’s recent Elite controller, the Elite Series 2.

And in January 2021, the European Commission confirmed plans to consider possible action against Nintendo over Joy-Con drift, followed by calls for action from its own European consumer organization (BEUC), which has received more than 25,000 complaints from numerous countries received.