This week, Sony joins Microsoft and Nintendo in being on the receiving end of a class-action lawsuit due to a drift defect in its games console controllers.
As Eurogamer reports, the lawsuit was filed by law firm Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of plaintiff Lmarc Turner and any other affected consumers. It claims that Sony is selling defective DualSense controllers which suffer from joysticks that register movement without player input.
The lawsuit explains, “Specifically, the DualSense controllers that are used to operate the PS5 contain a defect that results in characters or gameplay moving on the screen without user command or manual operation of the joystick … This defect significantly interferes with gameplay and thus compromises the DualSense controller’s core functionality.”
A video demonstrating DualSense drift was posted on Reddit back on Nov. 26 last year, just two weeks after the console launched. The lawsuit also claims that Sony is aware of the DualSense being faulty due to complaints already filed, but also that consumers must pay the shipping fees to send a DualSense controller to Sony for repair even though they are still under warranty.
Just like Microsoft and Nintendo have done, it seems likely Sony will attempt to compel any case to be settled through arbitration. However, the plaintiff Lmarc Turner apparently wrote to Sony after agreeing to the terms of service for his PS5 console informing the company he was opting out of resolving disputes through arbitration. It’s unclear if that will hold any weight when the case comes before a judge.
