Google, Id Software, and Bungie are the subject of a class action lawsuit that claims the companies misled customers when they claimed that the Stadia they could be played at 4K resolution.
As ClassAction.org reports, the lawsuit was filed last year in Queens County Superior Court, but has now been transferred to federal court in New York. The lawsuit, brought by plaintiff Jacqueline Shepherd, focuses on Google’s claims prior to Stadia’s launch that the streaming platform would be “more powerful than Xbox One X and Playstation 4 Pro combined”, particularly in its ability to stream games in 4K resolution.
However, upon launch, it became clear that many Stadia games were not pushing true 4K picture, but rather improvement from lower resolutions. By allowing pre-orders before launch and not providing full information on the platform’s ability to drive 4K, the plaintiff alleges that “Google made false and misleading claims about the streaming quality of the Stadia service to generate higher revenue for its Google Stadia division.”.
The plaintiff lists Id Software and Bungie in the lawsuit due to their advertising of Doom Eternal and Destiny 2 on Stadia, which included mentions of 4K resolutions, but none of the games ran in true 4K at launch. The plaintiff alleges that Id, in particular, “illicitly generated millions of dollars in revenue as a result” of those claims. Id has denied any responsibility or wrongdoing.
The plaintiff is seeking financial compensation for a number of different factors, as well as an order requiring Google to display the actual resolution and frame rate of each game sold on Stadia.
The class action lawsuit seeks to cover anyone in the United States who, from June 6, 2019 onwards, purchased a subscription to Stadia Founder’s Edition, Stadia Premier Edition, or Stadia Pro due to information that Stadia would be more powerful than others. consoles, or that it would run all games in 4K. It is not clear how far the lawsuit will advance, but we will continue to update you as more is learned on the subject.
Separately, Stadia recently closed all of its internal development studios, reportedly in part due to Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, but the company claims that the service will receive more than 100 games in 2021.
