Man sues Sony because Killzone: Shadow Fall wasn't actually 1080p

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Californian man Douglas Ladore has filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony Computer Entertainment, alleging he was mislead by the publisher's claims that Killzone: Shadow Fall was rendering at a resolution of 1080p on the PlayStation 4.

Ladore claims that in many pre-release interviews and advertisements, plus on the box of the game itself, the game was touted as rendering at 1080p on Sony's 'next-gen' console. However, as Digital Foundry discovered in a post-release analysis, the multiplayer portion of the game actually renders natively at 960x1080 - half of standard 1080p - before using upscaling techniques to deliver Full HD.

The upscaling technique in question, temporal upscaling, horizontally interlaces the previous frame with the current frame to deliver output that's closer to 1080i. According to the lawsuit, the experience produced through the interlacing is "blurry to the point of distraction", not what you'd expect from true 1080p output.

Sony argued around the time of the game's release that temporal upscaling resulted in similar results to native 1080p rendering. Ladore, however, claims it's misleading to describe interlaced 1080p output as "native 1080p", accusing the company of false advertising, fraud, breach of warranty, and unjust enrichment.

He also claims that had he known that the title was not rendering natively at 1080p, he would "not have purchased Killzone at all, or would have paid substantially less for it."

The class-action suit is being represented by Edelson PC, who filed the complaint in the Northern California US District Court on August 5, demanding a trial by jury. The suit seeks "restitution in the form of disgorgement of all revenue derived from sales of Killzone: Shadow Fall".

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Too many dang law suites. I would just ask for a refund and make it known to the public that this isn't true 1080p so others can decide for themselves to buy it or not. I buy games for the FUN of playing them and not for just the latest eye candy.
 
"I would just ask for a refund"

Guest, your entire post is laughable. Sony (or the store you purchased that game at) would never give you your money back on an opened game; and they would certainly NEVER publicly announce that their game is not what they said it was.
 
I think the actual lawsuit is a bit silly but I am happy that the shenanigans Sony and Microsoft are pulling with their "next-gen" consoles are being brought to light. The performance of these next-gen consoles is disappointingly underwhelming.
 
Very bizarre but that explains why I thought the single player looked better than the multiplayer!
 
I think the actual lawsuit is a bit silly but I am happy that the shenanigans Sony and Microsoft are pulling with their "next-gen" consoles are being brought to light. The performance of these next-gen consoles is disappointingly underwhelming.

Its actually against the law to commit false advertising aka sony & a lot of other companies actually do... so glad sony is getting sued hopefully they will be more direct instead of saying "Our game is life like native!" then being life like upscaled... which is terrible..
 
It does render in 1080 just not 1920x1080,if they had put that it renders in 1920x1080 and it didn't,I would agree with him been upset but filing a lawsuit is as stupid as America can be.

I was still joking with my friend on Monday how careful he would have to be in the States,since they sue for every little thing possible.

"He also claims that had he known that the title was not rendering natively at 1080p, he would "not have purchased Killzone at all, or would have paid substantially less for it."" - easy to say after starting the class action.
 
Everyone sues everyone over every little thing and lawyers of course love it because it means they get more moolah. But it is really sad in this day and age that everyone can make a claim for just about anything. Life sucks, you may get hit by a bus and die, and if you dont die, but get an injury you can claim. So please don't cause anyone a serious injury, reverse and finish the job.
 
Its actually against the law to commit false advertising aka sony & a lot of other companies actually do... so glad sony is getting sued hopefully they will be more direct instead of saying "Our game is life like native!" then being life like upscaled... which is terrible..

Only, they didn't falsely advertise anything. It was known before release that only the single player portion of the game would run at full 1080p. Many reviewers have noted this.

This isn't a case of Sony or Havok getting called on shenanigans. It's a case of a gamer thinking he can make a quick buck off of the dev's inability to sufficiently optimize the code for multiplayer. Sony's only mistake was being naive enough not to put an asterisk on the back of the box to suit block knuckleheads.
 
If gamers knew how many games weren't running in 'true 1080p' they would throw their consoles off a bridge. Upscaling FTW.

The difference is most games don't advertise to be running at "Full 1080p" and "60FPS" and even then most games don't use performance numbers to differentiate between competition.

In the USA we have laws protecting consumers against false advertisment, bait and switch, and other printing lies. It is very much illegal, and it should be. However we as a people have become extremely complacent with these unethical and illegal practices. It is about time we start sticking it to the man, no matter how trivial.

Margninalizing this man for the lawsuit or dismissing it as a troll greedy for a payout only hurts us as a people. There is no doubt the case is heavily driven by greed, but the end result are more weary and honest corportations and products that live up to their promises. The why is irrelevant.
 
Its actually against the law to commit false advertising aka sony & a lot of other companies actually do... so glad sony is getting sued hopefully they will be more direct instead of saying "Our game is life like native!" then being life like upscaled... which is terrible..

Only, they didn't falsely advertise anything. It was known before release that only the single player portion of the game would run at full 1080p. Many reviewers have noted this.

This isn't a case of Sony or Havok getting called on shenanigans. It's a case of a gamer thinking he can make a quick buck off of the dev's inability to sufficiently optimize the code for multiplayer. Sony's only mistake was being naive enough not to put an asterisk on the back of the box to suit block knuckleheads.

While I mostly agree with you, people should not have to research if a game is truly 1080p or not before buying it if it says it is 1080p on the box. The "if only they had done their research" argument only goes so far.

For one, though, this is a bit disappointing. I had a lot of hope for this next generation of consoles. Last console I bought was the Wii back in 2007. Playstation always has had the exclusives that I have wanted to play. If interlacing is going to be a regular thing I may consider myself console-less for another round.
 
People should really understand the limits of the hardware before suing... Sony may have promised but after much trial, they maybe just weren't able to do it. This lawsuit is probably gonna be in favor of Sony IMO.
 
If he's going to sue Sony over Killzone, he should sue over the fact that Killzone is a really boring franchise.

And why get your panties in tizzy over the resolution? Just enjoy the game and stop crying about every little thing.
 
Its actually against the law to commit false advertising aka sony & a lot of other companies actually do... so glad sony is getting sued hopefully they will be more direct instead of saying "Our game is life like native!" then being life like upscaled... which is terrible..

Only, they didn't falsely advertise anything. It was known before release that only the single player portion of the game would run at full 1080p. Many reviewers have noted this.

This isn't a case of Sony or Havok getting called on shenanigans. It's a case of a gamer thinking he can make a quick buck off of the dev's inability to sufficiently optimize the code for multiplayer. Sony's only mistake was being naive enough not to put an asterisk on the back of the box to suit block knuckleheads.

While I mostly agree with you, people should not have to research if a game is truly 1080p or not before buying it if it says it is 1080p on the box. The "if only they had done their research" argument only goes so far.

For one, though, this is a bit disappointing. I had a lot of hope for this next generation of consoles. Last console I bought was the Wii back in 2007. Playstation always has had the exclusives that I have wanted to play. If interlacing is going to be a regular thing I may consider myself console-less for another round.

But the game is truly 1080p. It's only the multiplayer that isn't. But I certainly agree that the box should tell the whole story and not surprise (disappoint) us with unexpected functions. I am somewhat perplexed as to why they didn't indicate this on the packaging, as I have historically found this to be the case in games that switch resolutions contextually.

I still think it's a bit early to render judgement on this generation of consoles. It wasn't until a few years into the lifecycle of the previous generation that developers really started exploiting the systems' potential. Because of development costs and increasing programming sophistication, I think that the days of a console coming out and having an impressive library of next-gen games on tap are behind us. Year 1 has become a proof of concept for consoles.
 
I'm going to go through all my games advertised as 1080p, count all the pixels individually so each screen should be made up of about 2.1million pixels and then sue the pants off whoever is responsible for advertising 1080p if it is not genuinely 1980x1080. An easy way to make a quick buck because I'm too lazy and workshy to find a proper job. Might take me a bit longer and a stronger pair of glasses when it comes to 4K though.
I think I'll sue the responsible company for $500 for every missing pixel I find. :D
 
I'm going to go through all my games advertised as 1080p, count all the pixels individually so each screen should be made up of about 2.1million pixels and then sue the pants off whoever is responsible for advertising 1080p if it is not genuinely 1980x1080. An easy way to make a quick buck because I'm too lazy and workshy to find a proper job. Might take me a bit longer and a stronger pair of glasses when it comes to 4K though.
I think I'll sue the responsible company for $500 for every missing pixel I find. :D

It might be to make some money, but it would also be nice if large companies like this were accountable for misleading customers. That's how I see this, and I think it's a good thing that companies should give people what they tell them they're giving them.

You shouldn't have to do research, you shouldn't have to have prior knowlege. If Sony puts 1080p on a box you should be getting 1080p.
 
To me, this is another one of those foolish lawsuits in out Lawsuit happy world sadly. However I do agree that it was false advertising on Sony's part (1 of many things) because things like this are noticeable.

They should not have done it, but I feel the lawsuit is a bit much (Even if its just a class action).

Sony should be held responsible for its lies, but there are better ways...
 
To me, this is another one of those foolish lawsuits in out Lawsuit happy world sadly. However I do agree that it was false advertising on Sony's part (1 of many things) because things like this are noticeable.

They should not have done it, but I feel the lawsuit is a bit much (Even if its just a class action).

Sony should be held responsible for its lies, but there are better ways...

How else does the little guy get the attention of a huge company like that?
 
I would just ask for a refund and make it known to the public that this isn't true 1080p
While I mostly agree with you, people should not have to research if a game is truly 1080p or not before buying it if it says it is 1080p on the box.
I'm going to go through all my games advertised as 1080p, count all the pixels individually so each screen should be made up of about 2.1million pixels and then sue the pants off whoever is responsible for advertising 1080p if it is not genuinely 1980x1080.
You shouldn't have to do research, you shouldn't have to have prior knowlege. If Sony puts 1080p on a box you should be getting 1080p.
All of you need to understand that "1080p" DOES NOT mean "1920x1080" or "Full HD".
1080p means video frames made of 1080 horizontal lines displayed through progessive scan. The number of vertical lines is NOT part of that definition. 1920x1080 is 1080p, 1440x1080 is 1080p, 960x1080 is 1080p, even 10x1080 is 1080p. There is no false advertising done by Sony here, unless Sony used either the "1920x1080" or "Full HD" terms.
 
Can you imagine if you walked into a store and bought a 1080p advertised TV to only take it home and it is only a 960x1080 resolution screen. 1080p is a standard, and if they advertised it as such (I haven't confirmed this), then shame on them. Does that warrant a class action suit.... jury is out on that one.
 
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