Can FDev be charged for charges by mishandling Odyssey?

[RowanSkye]

At this rate, we'll need to get more aggressive more than anything. The roadmap's just three days of updates then complete silence. The DLC was released before the end of their fiscal year, showing signs of rushed development. The product itself is very barebones and actually promised features that weren't able to properly be implemented. Refunds are going out as more and more people get frustrated and even then, everything is going very bad for FDev itself.

This question is asked because there are certainly other examples that can be said that show what will soon happen to this. (Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077, No Man's Sky, etc.)

One way or another, there's a lack of player interaction for the game, and the videos are really now just showing things that aren't now a thing. Those things should be implemented one way or another, and fixes should be made before a bunch of angry gamers pull out lawsuits because their dedication to this game will bring them to that.

 

[Old Duck]

The only thing I see Frontier doing that I consider "legally grey" is selling Odyssey as a finished product rather than an Early Access title. I own a few Early Access titles, and they all feel way more finished and polished than Odyssey does. Frontier continues to sell Odyssey as a finished product TO THIS DAY despite acknowledging that it is far from finished. That feels like false advertising to me.

Disclaimer - my opinions regarding Odyssey are based on second-hand observations, so don't put my name on any class-action lawsuits you might be cooking up.

 

[Pigletslastand]

Please don't be that guy!

Also just as i have previously pointed out over posts that pop up to defend i will also point out that this post is a brand new accont and calling for action, suspicious much! This is ridiculous

 

[RowanSkye]

Please don't be that guy!

Also just as i have previously pointed out over posts that pop up to defend i will also point out that this post is a brand new accont and calling for action, suspicious much! This is ridiculous

True, and at this rate I don't use the forums much. Maybe like some content, but my handle's more in Discord and Steam.

 

[Old Duck]

Also just as i have previously pointed out over posts that pop up to defend i will also point out that this post is a brand new accont and calling for action, suspicious much! This is ridiculous

To be fair, a lot of the "Odyssey is the best game ever and I have zero bugs and it runs at 120 fps in ultra plus settings for me, I love it so much I named my newborn Odysseus!" threads have also posted by new accounts.

 

[Pigletslastand]

Yeah that's what i have pointed out in the past but to be fair and balanced I was also calling out this account so I can't be accused of doing so just for my own bias

 

[Malak Dawnfire]

Yes.

 

[Vardaugas]

To be fair, a lot of the "Odyssey is the best game ever and I have zero bugs and it runs at 120 fps in ultra plus settings for me, I love it so much I named my newborn Odysseus!" threads have also posted by new accounts.

Wouldn't surprise me if they're from the same pool of people. Got to play both sides for opinion manipulation to work right.

 

[Gorrister]

You are a customer. You can return the game. Then your financial defect is erased.
If you are a shareholder you may sue Frontier for pushing the financial numbers in the fiscal year with an unfinished product to look better than they are.

Since I don't expect you to be a shareholder... no you can't sue them for selling you a game at this state. Well, of course you can. But you will lose and thats more expensive than 40€.

 

[Sonoskay]

Long story short. No. Part of the reason Fdev's response has been like this is to avoid any admition of liability. its not really against any law that F-dev released a half baked game as long as they continue to say "hey this is what we intended and is complete. We didnt intend to release a buggy game..." And as long as no one can prove bad faith then they are covered.

 

[SP_Predicador]

It's the Market, if you are disatisfied, don't buy a thing from Frontier, is the only thing really usefull that we consumers can do. But, videogames consumers we are really bad consumers, and developpers know. There are even a number of fanboys / heirs to theirs beloved companies, that take videogames as other take football teams, a politic party or a religion.
So the developpers won't stop launching rushed mvp, even not so viable, because they know that after a short term stock prices down, this movement will be at last profitable and it will be worth it finally. We are not really smart, me being the first, maybe because we need videogames to evade a really worst reality.

 

[AkenBosch]

a bunch of angry gamers

/thread

 

[Quantis Trap]

other examples that can be said that show what will soon happen to this. (Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077, No Man's Sky, etc.)

We could only hope that what happened to No Man's Sky would happen to this game! Namely, that Frontier would support the game half as well as Hello Games has supported theirs!
If I'm not mistaken, the couple of the other games in that list are now showing some success too.
OP, I hope you're proven right no this!

 

[The Nephilim]

As I said in an earlier thread ...

Ugh ...

 

[Erei]

The only thing I see Frontier doing that I consider "legally grey" is selling Odyssey as a finished product rather than an Early Access title. I own a few Early Access titles, and they all feel way more finished and polished than Odyssey does. Frontier continues to sell Odyssey as a finished product TO THIS DAY despite acknowledging that it is far from finished. That feels like false advertising to me.

Disclaimer - my opinions regarding Odyssey are based on second-hand observations, so don't put my name on any class-action lawsuits you might be cooking up.

Early access status is not a legal status I think.

Laws are very vague for games. They will not be condemned. See NMS lawsuit. Even though they used a specific planet, with unique models and scripts for their trailer, said planet being in the file that were released (they forgot to remove it), they were not condemned for false advertising.

 

[Red Anders]

In this thread: lolsuits

 

[babelfisch]

IIRC the lawsuit against NMS was pretty much a failure and it still turned out to be a very good game (personally I don't like it at all, but lots of people are happy with it). So I don't really understand what you are trying to achieve.
Obviously I could try to refund Odyssey or sue them, but I am not because I am having way too much fun with it and it would be pointless anyway.

 

[gorankar]

We could only hope that what happened to No Man's Sky would happen to this game! Namely, that Frontier would support the game half as well as Hello Games has supported theirs!
If I'm not mistaken, the couple of the other games in that list are now showing some success too.
OP, I hope you're proven right no this!

Cyberpunk 2077 is a lot less buggy than it was at release, but I don't think the game is going get any deeper or more fleshed out than it is. Still a 3A title as it stands right now though.
Fallout 76 is right now, minus some of the cheating and the P2W features, the game many of us wanted it be to at release. It just took them a year and a half.
No Man's Sky, even though it's not my thing, is the poster child for turning a game around.

If Odyssey gets fixed as well as CP2077 I may buy for my current account on sale at some point.
If it gets fixed up to the level of FO76 without adding any P2W features, I will buy it the next day at full price.
If it gets the full NMS treatment, along with interiors, and reverting or truly fixing the UI, I will buy it the next day at full price, and all will be forgiven.

I suspect they will at least get it up to CP2077 levels before moving on to the next update, or more likely, just letting it fall into maintenance until sales no longer cover server costs. I hope we get that much, and I am open to being proven wrong.

 

[Erei]

IIRC the lawsuit against NMS was pretty much a failure and it still turned out to be a very good game (personally I don't like it at all, but lots of people are happy with it). So I don't really understand what you are trying to achieve.
Obviously I could try to refund Odyssey or sue them, but I am not because I am having way too much fun with it and it would be pointless anyway.

Some people who have been in jail turned to be good people afterward. But there was no way to know when they were judged, and the judgement often helped turning them into good people.
I understand the frustration, and the feeling of being lied to. I knew it was lies myself, I mean "we have a better build ready for release", come on people... Still I knew that someday the DLC would be fixed, and I'd play it. However, I honestly didn't expect it would be this bad.

But yeah, lawsuit are a bit much IMO.

 

[Crystles]

I'm not a lawyer, but if you mean like, sue them legally? I extremely doubt it.

Half the problem is Marketing is allowed to be so nebulous to the point where previews and promotional material doesnt even have to remotely represent what's in the actual product. The other half? They havnt exactly lied perse anywhere on the sales pages, and if pre-release previews/interviews could be held legally binding as to their content, most game companies would be sued into the ground by now, if nothing else but by opportunistic lawyers.

No. Best thing to do is to keep slamming them where it hurts the most, their profits. The one tool we all have as a customer, and it really does work... Is our wallets. Vote with it, it's the loudest thing any individual can do that they'll hear.

All this, on the forums and stuff? Is after the fact. If they ever decide to turn things around and start listening, they'll need things to listen to.