Disgruntled Switch Fans File Class Action Lawsuit Over KOTOR II DLC Cancellation

The Gamers Strike Back

good to see crummy incompetent companies like this get what's comin to em. Hoping this lawsuit goes through and that Aspyr loses

Situation sucks for sure but this will go nowhere. You can't really prove any kind of meaningful damages on, "They didn't give me as much bang for my one-time $15 purchase as anticipated but offered an equivalent value make-good."

It all just sounds a bit sad and petty to me. To the Star Wars loving Switch fans... Get over yourself.

Thats a bit rash

I get where they're coming from, but at this point I have very little sympathy when people buy something that does not exist, based on the promise that it will eventually exist, getting upset when said thing stubbornly persists in not existing.

I bought KOTOR 2 on Switch simply for KOTOR 2. The lying promise of future content was just icing on the cake back then.

However I would feel duped and annoyed if I purchased it specifically for this false advertised product. However big or small, consumers have a right to get the product they paid for. This content was part of the product that was paid for, so it was on Aspyr and co to deliver. It's getting to the point of bait and switch which very much should have legal actions taken upon.

It's doubtful this lawsuit will do anything like most class action lawsuits, but company's shouldn't just get a free ticket from bailing on what was advertised. Not offering a refund was just insulting honestly, forcing you to pick a product you have already purchased, don't have access to play or had no intention of buying in the first place is - while better than what some companies would offer - still bad practice.

Good on the plaintiff for holding them accountable for their purposeful deceit in selling something they had no intention of ever providing.

@Kestrel It was explicitly promised in the trailer.

To be specific, they offered 1 free game from all the star wars ports they released. I know because I claimed my 'free' star wars game because they broke their promise. But I will never trust them again! I highly doubt I will buy anything again from them ever again. I made this clear to them in my correspondence with their costumer service while informing which game I wanted as a replacement.

@CurryPowderKeg79 if you promise something and promote it in the trailers to deliver it in the near future you better keep that promise or don't promise anything at all.

I'm glad they're suing. Can't let the corps keep getting away with this especially if they already advertised the extra DLC to be part of the game.

I was given the Star Wars heritage pack as compensation for getting no Dlc. I think that was more than adequate. People just love to be outraged these days.

Haha, that is one way to push for dlc. It might actually work too.

So you can launch a class action because you are disappointed now?

Only in America...

I mean they did initially promise the dlc, while they provided somewhat of an explanation and a “free game” as compensation, I already owned what they were offering, save for if I were to get one of the games again on a different platform.

So I “get it”.

Definitely a company that Aspyrs to mediocrity and deception

Woof this game really is cursed. Bioware passed it down to Obsidian who weren’t given time to finish it and released it with a totally incomplete ending. Modders found a lot of the deleted content in the game files and filled in the blanks. I remember waiting for the original “restoration mod” that this DLC was based on to be released back in the day. I never did get to play it because by the time it was finally released I no longer had a PC or a copy of the game. Then I blissfully forgot all about it until this DLC was announced and I thought, “man I sure would like to play that” but in classic Star Wars fashion I had a bad feeling about this. I told myself I wouldn’t buy it, no matter how many times I saw it on sale, until the DLC was released and boy am
I glad I did.

This leaves a rather uncertain fate on the future of remastered classic Star Wars games. I am still waiting for the day we start getting remasters of the Rogue Squadron trilogy.

@MattmanForever Still not sympathetic. Don't preorder games, don't preorder DLC, and if you do, don't be surprised if you wind up getting ripped off.

The amount of commenters here, arguing in favour of game companies being allowed to rip them off is simply astounding.

@WhiteUmbrella Right? Telling people to "never have expectations" is really stupid given I bet everyone on this site has had expectations for games on numerous occasions. God's sake, that's what the industry is all about! Yes, temper expectations. But if you're promised something, and then you proceed to not get it AND not be allowed refunds, that's just scummy. No matter how you spin it, that's not something we should be accepting because it's an industry standard. You don't see people saying that crunch development is OK because everyone else does it. It just doesn't make sense to argue FOR the group that's screwing the consumer over. Even if you don't like that game type, company, or fanbase, your support helps push the mentality that lying to the consumer is OK. Please, think about what you're arguing before you let your pessimism for the state of the industry take you over. It just makes things worse.

Refunds for broken advertised promises should be mandatory! It's deceptive period and should have some consequences for those advertising advantages, products were supposed to have, but for whatever reason failed to deliver. While pre-ordering can be risky, and as someone that has no recollection of having ever pre-ordered a game that does not warrant being fleeced. A lot of victim blaming going on.

I never even got offered the Steam game. Probably because I bought a physical copy through Limited Run. Ah well.

@WhiteUmbrella Totally agree!

They purposefully falsely advertised this game with a DLC. It was in the friggin' launch trailer!

So now it's the gamer's fault for purchasing the game, based on what was advertised and shown in the trailer?

They purposely lied to consumers in favor of sales, by promoting a DLC they never had any intention of releasing!

Such deceitful actions should be held accountable or other studios will start doing the same, to boost sales, if they know they can get away with it, with zero accountability and concequence.

Many countries (especially here in Europe) have consumer protection laws in place, to protect consumers against this.

I, too, already owned all the other Switch Star Wars games, so their offer, offered me nothing.

Ironically their biggest supporters are the ones who were screwed.

If they were so excited for the promised dlc that they didn't play the game when they bought it, maybe they should've waited until the dlc was released before they bought it

@Stamina_Wheel Yeeeees!!! Here I come, Level 5! I want that Fantasy Live Online game and I want it NOOOOW!!!

@Daniel36 Count me in! I'm still waiting for Level-5's Ushiro on Nintendo Switch!

@Stamina_Wheel In all fairness, that “small” development studio was also the team that initially took on the PS5 remake for the original KOTOR. This is a remake was the opener at a major Sony State of Play, a remake that who knows how many people are anticipating, and also a remake that’s gone into a light form of development hell after an internal showcase was so bad they had to transition studios completely to Saber Interactive. It can be argued a full remake is different from a port, and while that’s true, LucasFilm trusted them entirely to be able to remake a game as renowned as KOTOR. Regardless of how well they did at it, that ain’t something a particularly small team would be given the reigns to in a majority of situations, especially with the Star Wars license involved.

Personally, I never actually bought KOTOR 2 because I remember the port being iffy at best, but I can’t say I blame people for doing this. It’s a wee bit exaggerated, sure, one $15 port usually wouldn’t stir up this much controversy, but the DLC was a big selling point and just not delivering is at the bare minimum a big PR hit.

@Stamina_Wheel

Yes definitely, if said cancelled game had opened preorders and refused to refund.

Well it was false advertising plain and simple. The trailers specifically mentioned that the restored content DLC was coming, so you can’t really argue that. Unfortunately a law suit probably won’t make the DLC release. At the end of the day Aspyr is to blame for over promising, if they did not have it locked in, they should not have said anything. The whole situation is just kind of sad.

As a side note KOTOR 2 is a very solid experience even without the DLC.

This is exactly why I was waiting for that "promise" to be fulfilled before purchasing KotoR 2. And why I said MK1 isn't worth purchasing based on a "promise" to bring it up to par (feature-wise) with the other versions.

Really weird to see people calling it "petty". Is it because they don't care about the game in question? Or because it was only "DLC"? They sold the game based on false advertisement which is incredibly scummy.

How childish can you possibly be? I didn't get what I wanted so I'm suing? 1st rule of life: it's not fair, 2nd rule: you don't always get what you expect to get and 3rd rule: nobody cares if you're feelings get hurt over it. Things change, what is promised today is guaranteed tomorrow, people would do better to learn this fact.

People aren't suing because their feelings were hurt or that they're disappointed in something. They paid money for something, didn't get the thing they paid money for, and didn't get a refund.

It's about money and blatant trade description breaches. Ppl will think it's OTT but at least this is getting publicised and puts a mark on a big corp who tried to fool a customer

A-murh-ri-kah!

The land of the lawyers and litigation.

And the lawyers are the only ones who win from things like this.

@Kestrel So they deserve to lose their money?
You're annoyed and I you're the most important thing in the universe, and I get that, but can they simply have their money back? Jeez.

I wanted to get the KotOR bundle, but passed on account of the port controls.

Unfortunately, this led me to missing out on one of my favorite kind of games: the free kind!

It's pretty simple, if the product a company delivers is not as advertised the company is obliged to refund the consumer.

This concept is somewhat complicated by the fact video games are not sold as complete packages anymore, and a significant chunk of content is often delivered months or years after launch day.

Nonetheless, if marketing clearly advertises content, especially like this where it is arguably the main selling point for most buyers, the company can't simply hide behind the weak 'well, game development is uncertain' excuse. This was not a beta, or a GaaS title. There was no ambiguity in their advertising about whether the Restored Content would eventually arrive. This was also not a case of the content arriving and being disappointing, in that case the consumer would have no recourse. In this case no content was ever delivered at all. They should have offered a straightforward refund from the moment it was clear the Restored Content was not coming.

Aspyr literally pulled a “I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further”

Serves them right for having a copout

Would have been nice if Aspyr in ANY WAY gave a reason why they weren't doing it. Instead they waited months after it was supposed to release and simply said "we aren't doing it now" and moved on. I have the LRG physical copy that I haven't even bothered to unseal lol.

That said, as annoyed as I am, I don't see this case going anywhere.

People really need to grow up and focus on more important things in life.

Their lawyer is going to use the free game as an admission of guilt, and while it might not win the case for them, it's going to make it much harder and more expensive for Aspyr to defend.

And while all the children scream "stick it to the man!" like this is some huge victory, the next time this happens whatever company is at fault will simply silent cancel the DLC and offer us nothing because having any level of meaningful customer service is again exposed as a legal liability. They SHOULD have offered refunds, but this isn't going to motivate anyone to offer refunds in the future ... it's going to motivate them to offer nothing.

Punishing people who try to make things better is why if you've every been in a board room with game executives, they hate everything who buy their products and constantly make discussions that make things worse for us in favor of whatever short term gains then can make.

@gazamataz and if people were effected by this and already own everything that was being offered then what? I get that it’s “just $15”. At this point it’s not about the money it’s about the principle. This wasn’t dlc announced after the release, this was marketed as a selling point for the game. The original announcement trailer made sure to promote it. Now do I put 100% of the blame on Aspire? No, I truly believe that Disney/Lucasfilm got involved and it became an issue over rights. That said they over promised before they knew they could deliver and sold the game on that promise. I think they should be held accountable if for no other reason than to send a message. The more these companies get away with things like this the worse it’s going to get

@Lizuka That isn’t a valid defense though. That is like if someone promised me X product of Y value, but instead don’t give me X, but gives me Z product claiming it’s equivalent of Y value regardless if I didn’t want (or already have) Z.

Lawsuits went out for less.

@OorWullie The real sad and petty thing is false advertisements and refusing to do actual refunds.

@GrailUK No you can receive class action lawsuit when you false advertise and don’t give refunds.

Sounds like your country doesn’t give consumer enough power if something basic as that boggles your mind.

@Stamina_Wheel Why should a company “get a break” for promising something that would get people to buy your product to begin with, don’t do it, and have the audacity to not offer refunds afterwards? You are literally setting up for a dumb slippery slope precedence here. “Cancelled games” wouldn’t have took your money to begin with.

The “you get a free game” isn’t appropriate level of proper compensation for a multitude of reasons (you don’t like those other games, you have alll those games already, you prefer your $$$ back, etc)

@FuzzieGinge88 You sound like the ideal consumer that companies would absolutely love: A doormat that would just accept whatever the company decides for you after you paid them.

@HeadPirate The important thing is don’t offer X sales pitch for your Y game if it wasn’t a lock to begin with while having no plans to refund as a contingency. It’s common sense.

The “well this will just make things worse” attitude is complete anti-consumer BS.

No things get actually worse when more precedence like this keeps happening and consumers don’t utter a single protest and just accept the current status quo which is what companies actually want: Goldfish attention span consumers that are overly meek and hands over money no questions asked. That only just boldens companies to see what they can get away with.

Unfortunately it does look very much as if Aspyr announced the DLC with the intention of selling more copies of the base game and not actually making the DLC.

It doesn't look as if they intended to make the DLC at all and always just intended to give a free game to anyone who owns the original.

I'm not too bothered but i can see where the deception here could be.

@Kestrel I'm not terribly concerned with your sympathies or lack thereof, just explaining why people are pissed. Personally I have no sympathy for people who side with lazy, greedy companies that don't deliver on selling points.

@Darthmoogle I didn’t own all of the games. I would recommend anybody who owns all of the games to sell the code for $15 dollars or possibly more. That way they have KOTOR 2 and a refund. Problem solved 👍🏻

@XenoShaun Exactly this. I bought because it was advertised that it was the game WITH the extended story. It wasn't until after I bought I saw the small print "Oops, it'll be coming with the DLC". Fine - I thought, I'll put it aside and wait until the DLC drops... which never happened.

@Arawn93

I mean, I wish I lived in your world where common sense was a factor in legal matters and liability. I even remember when I was younger and thought we did live in a world like that. But we don't.

I'm just telling you how the real world works. You don't have to like it, I sure don't, but you need to face reality.

You completely ignored the point I made in favor of some idealistic viewpoint about how things "should" by. How things should be is irrelevant. It is simply a reality of jurisprudence that offering compensation is an admission of wrong doing. That's a legal realty. It's fact.

Why would they give away money in the form of a refund if they didn't do anything wrong? If they didn't mislead people and there was no reason anyone buying this game should assume the expansion was guaranteed to come out, why would you admit any fault and take any accountability?

So if you DO offer a refund, you are legally admitting to fault. You are offering that refund because you admit a reasonable person would assume they were getting the expansion. I'm not making this up. It's how the law works. Refunds and compensation has been used successfully in the past to win class action suits that have bankrupted companies.

It's hard to accept you're powerless, I get that. But fighting these guys isn't going to change laws, and protesting people doing MORE then what they are required to and isn't going to encourage people to do even more, it's just going to remind people it's better to do no more then you have to. Spending money and everyone hating you is worse then everyone hating you for free.

You can say it's stupid, it is.

You can say it's unfair, it's also that.

You can say it shouldn't be like that. It shouldn't.

You can say it sucks. Yeah it sucks.

But it's the way it is.

You're never going to fix anything getting mad at someone who's as much a slave to the system as you are.

One last example.

Consider this. Company X and Y both make a mistake. Costumers band together and protest, like you want them to. Company X tells them to go to hell, admits no fault, and puts all accountability on the costumer. Company Y gives everyone a refund.

But the lawyers still need to get paid, so both companies get sued for not doing enough. Company X wins the lawsuit hands down because at no point did they ever suggest they did anything wrong, and there simply are no laws saying they owe costumers anything. Company Y is found 100% liable because they admitted to their wrong doing and, having to absorb the lawsuit after giving everyone a refund, goes bankrupt.

Customers lost. The company that tried to listen to customers lost. The evil company wins. You can't even say "well no one will buy from them now" because now, without company y, we might not have a choice.

So fight the status quo all you want. I support you! But the status quo is torts laws that are hostile to consumers and the erosion of consumer protections. Start there.

Doubt this will go anywhere and if it somehow does guess we can all say goodbye to Aspyr trying to bring games for Nintendo Gamers. I know I wouldn't want to chance getting time and money wasted on a perceived promise. Was there even a promise?

@GrailUK I'm normally against this kind of thing, but they used an existing mod (without which the game is an unfinished mess) to promote sales of the game. If they had been silent on compatibility or said it wouldn't be compatible, they would have sold fewer copies of the game.

On top of that, they refused to give refunds and offered keys that would increase user count in their other titles.

Whichever way you cut it, the advertising was misleading.

That read like a 10 year old wrote it. 🤣 If I were a judge I’d probably toss it on that fact alone. I do agree what Aspyr did was crappy and they should have followed through with what they were touting.

If I bought a game with the promise of it eventually being finished, I'd want a refund, simple as that — a choice of a free game from the same publisher feels like a slap in the face. It'd be like going into a restaurant and ordering a meal which was undercooked, and had items missing, but then the manager was like, "oh would you like something else from the same inept kitchen staff? We'll still charge you for the thing you originally ordered"

@Gameplay4fun Yes there was a promise. "Restored content DLC coming soon" at the end of the trailer. Hence this whole controversy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEhYnI1MqxI

@Stamina_Wheel don't make promises you can't keep

When a product is promised as coming DLC then it should be coming and if not refund the people. That's what you do because that is bait'nSwitch sales not good practice. And also this becomes troubling.
Aspyr is the same developer behind the recently announced collection Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
Does that also mean if they can't remaster they will dump buyers as well.