Needless to say, it's been a terrible year in the legal world for gaming monolith Electronic Arts. We've been following the proceedings regarding O'Bannon v NCAA regarding the usage of student-athlete likenesses in sports games. There were the layoffs earlier in the year, and then the decision about royalties with Madden NFL Football. Hoping to get out of 2014 with no further issues just became a pipe dream as a class action lawsuit was just filed in regards to the bugs that have plagued Battlefield 4 since its launch, specifically the one-hit kill bug and graphical issues.
While the lawsuit may seem to be a bit outlandish, here's a piece of information that needs to be known. Taken straight from the official lawsuit documents (You can read the entire complaint form here.)
"The price of Electronic Arts stock spiked on this news, increasing approximately 7% from its close of $23.83 on July 23, 2013 to close at $25.41 on July 24th, on unusually high trading volume of more than 15.6 million shares trading, nearly five times the average daily volume over the preceding ten trading days. With the price of the Company's stock soaring, certain of Electronic Arts' senior executives cashed in, selling more than $4.8 million of Electronic Arts stock as follows: [list provided in link above on page 10 of complaint]"
It's hard to say if this lawsuit is going to go anywhere or not, but that is a little bit odd to have that difference in trading. it could just be a coincidence, but the stocks were sold within roughly three weeks of each other to the tune of almost $5 million.
Here's what we know: Battlefield 4 is a fun game that is experiencing its share of problems. Patches are being released and, yes, it does seem like it was rushed to get it out with the next-gen consoles. We'll continue to follow this lawsuit to see if it gets any traction.
