Sony forced PS3 owners into a tough decision with the mandatory 3.21 firmware update:
either lose online play, or forgo Linux support. On Tuesday, Anthony Ventura chose door number three -- and filed a lawsuit in California, asking the judge for class-action status. The complaint quotes Sony executives on numerous occasions saying how
vital and
important the "Install Other OS" feature was to the game console (
it's a computer, remember?) and claims breach of contract, false advertising, and several other causes of action against the entertainment giant. Sure, a lawsuit was bound to happen, given the number of angry PS3 owners out there, but here's the thing: there's no telling whether the court will grant a class-action certification here, and even if the case gets that far it's pretty unlikely to force Sony to turn the feature back on -- instead, customers will probably receive a token amount in damages while the lawyers get their full fees. For example, a rare, successful
class-action suit against Palm -- filed in 2004 -- got Treo 600 owners only $27.50 in
store credit, five years later. Meanwhile, we hear European PS3 owners
just have to ask for their money back -- which, we promise you, is the fastest way to put an end to your Linux-based PS3 nightmares. Either that, or just
wait for Geohot to make it all better.
posted April 29th 2010 3:47PM
Oh man. I bet there are around 3-4 people in the world that actually used the Other OS feature. Talk about making a big deal over a pretty worthless feature.
@Axtor Lol and Order
@Axtor
Actually PS3 "computers" were used quite a bit for cluster and parallel computing setups.
But the point is more about what is being sold to you.
What your told it is.
And how you're told, at the time you buy it, the company will support it going forward.
@Axtor
Actually, many scientist have used PS3s for the cheap processing power.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/10/ps3_supercomputer
@Axtor Believe it or not, more people than you think do use it. Yes, I admit that its a VERY low percentage of total PS3 owners, but many people use it for its computational power. I realize that I could get more CPU power now out of a high end Core i7, but the cost of a PS3 is way lower than a new PC rig. And its also a matter of Sony making such a big deal of it and going back on it. Its one thing if they pulled the feature before shipping the product, but its another thing entirely to pull it mid-life cycle. Maybe offer a paid "app" that enables the functionality, to doing the extra updates semi-worth while.
@thedankone Well you get pretty decent compunting power with just GFX cards nowadays. Im sure the science community around the world wont suffer too greatly because of this?
@Axtor
So when sony takes away gaming support because you could "pirate" games, will you say "That doesn't affect me, I only watch Blu Rays"?
The point is they removed an advertised feature.
Geohot seems to be the saviour of crippled devices.....
I highly doubt that all of these scientist using the PS3 as super computers are also using them to access PSN. They can probably care less about the update.
COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS! COULDN'T CARE LESS!
Saying they can care less suggests that they do care about it.
How can you defend this? This would be like selling a car to someone, and when they bring it in for service to the dealer, Ford determined that the cruise control might cause an issue at some point so they disable it.
Seems pretty harmless when it's not an often used feature, but you can't sell a product with a feature and turn it off later.
@JohnnyRocketpants Best argument here. Well said.
@Axtor
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9642
This is why I paid $600 for the PS3.
This is why I still want to use Linux.
This is why Sony and all of you haters for the lawsuit can suck it.
This is why I sent a bunch of info to the Lawyers defending the case.
Read and Learn
@BMills
Dude you need to find better things in life to get worked up over. I am not a "hater" but go ahead and see fit to lash out.
Or, make it all better by giving all of us backwards compatability?
@scrumtrelescent7
I would buy a new PS3 if they added in backwards compatibility. My friend has an original model and it is, BY FAR, the very best way to play PS2 games. The upscaling is great. Wireless controller support is fantastic. Unlimited memory cards are perfect!
What's up with the square select button?
@rhcpsfan
Really? Do you not see what they did there?
Nobody said that your PS3 is yours to do anything you want with it
Either make Sony some cash or give up on that feature.
@WeirdHero
I sense sarcasm, and for that +1
@(Unverified) I see no sarcasm, so -1 for both of you.
@WeirdHero well played :)
This is actually a rather big deal, despite the fact "no one" really uses the feature.
Hopefully this sets up some precedent to make it harder for companies to sell things with feature "X" and remove it later. It's rather a bait-n-switch. And despite it being a feature no one uses, if something isn't done, who is to say a company won't do this down the road with features people do use, but suddenly doesn't fit within the corps biz strategy?
They sell you one product. That is the product they should be required to let you have.
@aztek
Agreed. I don't even own a PS3 and I am very disappointed in Sony for doing something like this...it's pretty low if you ask me. I hope their lawyers charge them millions in fees.
@aztek well reading the small print in pretty much all electronic equipment, the company reserves the right to do pretty much anything can they want with it, software wise. Im quiet sure the Other Os feature wasnt the key selling point regarding the PS3 to begin with. And still at the end of the day its all in the small print and has always been. Shouldnt of have come as any suprise. People just need to learn to suck it up now and then and not go crazy with the lawsuits. But who am i kidding, lawsuits are the american way......
@DoctarPeppar I have a PS3 and I love keeping up-to-date with new firmware releases. However I stopped dead in my tracks once I saw that they'd drop the "Other OS" feature.
I never got around to using it, so I'm gonna try it out now. Kinda pissed that they'd force their customers to stay offline. That's ridiculous.
@Axtor People aren't going crazy with lawsuits. Sony simply broke the law and now get to pay the price. I hope they burn for it. I was going to buy a PS3 then they removed backwards compatibility, now this garbage emerges. I'm glad I purchased a 360, not to mention the much wider range of titles to play now.
And don't joke yourself, just because a company puts some twisted EULA in stating this or that doesn't mean they can make blanket statements in how a consumer uses a product. Simply put you can't take away consumer's rights in a Warranty/EULA/ToS etc. One of the reasons we have a legal system is to KEEP those rights as so many companies seem to think that just because they are huge monstrosities and people can't understand legalese they won't put up a fight. We now live in a society where marketing basically runs society which is sad since once we go down that road we can never come back; marketers know how to use addiction to keep people happy. People like the quick fix nowadays and that will never stop unless a. we teach our children not to or b. we vote with our wallets. Getting the plebs to do either is an impossible task because ignorant people truly believe ignorance is bliss.
has anyone tried this from geohot?
http://www.geek.com/articles/games/geohot-hacks-ps3-3-21-firmware-re-enabling-linux-option-2010048/
WOW.. USA is so F-ed UP
I dont recall SONY ever selling this as a computer, they said you can buy video games and play them on it.
How can you sue for something that was never designed for in the first place?
@AppleDrank
It was advertised as such, luckily law isn't based on a random person on the internet recalling it or not. Unluckily the law is based so that it will take years in court to award owners a paltry amount of money that they will probably have to wait another year to receive, while some lawyers will walk away with millions.
The short version, the PS3 advertised the ability to "Install Other OS" and "Connect online to play against others" after the update one of those two options were disabled, depending on if you decided to patch or not.
@AppleDrank
"Speaking about the PS3, we never said we will release a game console. It is clearly a computer." - Ken Kutaragi
Sorry. Sony clearly called the PS3 is a computer.
@AppleDrank
a) they did advertise it; those "it only does everything" ads for one thing, and they were always only too happy to point out that it could be used as a computer in order to justify its high cost when it first launched
b) it was designed for it. That's why it was mentioned in the console manual. And why it let you partition the harddrive to have an unallocated 10GB, or to only allocate 10GB. And why there was an "Install Other OS" option on the XMB. And why after you installed it, there was on option on the XMB letting you choose the default OS.
c) you're a complete tool.
@AppleDrank that's the bad part. They DID advertise (heavily around Barcelona, at least) that the ps3 was no mere gaming console, and you could install other operative sysyems. Sony is sooo going down.
@drkztan
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9642
This is why I paid $600 for the PS3.
This is why I still want to use Linux.
This is why Sony and all of you haters for the lawsuit can suck it.
This is why I sent a bunch of info to the Lawyers defending the case.
Read and Learn
“Without limitation, services may include the provision of the latest update or download of new release that may include security patches, new technology or revised settings and features which may prevent access to unauthorized or pirated content, or use of unauthorized hardware or software in connection with the PS3 system.”
@Axtor
That's fine except for the fact that law trumps a EULA, and in some countries EULA's aren't even considered binding at all.
Then there is the fact that Ventura lives in California where some of the consumer protection laws are similar to some European countries. http://www.articlesbase.com/national-state-local-articles/unlawful-acts-under-the-california-unfair-competition-law-505632.html
Surprise surprise
What was sony's official reasoning for removing this feature?
@nsfw i think its because of the new playstation move using the necesary ram or space?
@nsfw
for "security reasons".
@nsfw I'm fairly sure it was GeoHot finally gaining access to hypervisor and the fear the PS3 would go the way of the PSP.
I was disappointed in that Treo lawsuit. I was a part of it.
Not only was it store credit, it didn't cover the f*cking shipping. Saw a nice MicroSD card that fit the bill nicely with shipping... but the code only covered the item, no shipping.
$%#@% you, HP.
@dragonfli
Wish i get some store credit for this one, PSN dosent require shipping anyway... And some games might make me feel better about this =)
i'm still furious at sony for this. i use my linux partition all the time and i'm not updating from 3.15 without a really good reason. they've lost me as a customer and i hope they lose big time for this
@enzospartan exactly - I got one specifically because it was the cheapest linux box I could get with HDMI out. So, for now, I won't take the firmware upgrade (per Sony's only advice when I filed a support request) but I'll certainly join the class on this if it happens; if that falls through, it'll be time to see about selling it and starting again, there are probably more options now...
@eichin Are you actually trying to claim you spent 600+ dollars on a terribly low end (since it's restricted access) Linux machine just for hdmi out? I'm calling BS. And saying that you got one later for even 300 dollars is still BS, you could get any machine at a comparative price, better performance, and have enough to buy a video card that supported hdmi if the machine didn't already come with one.
This lawsuit has merit.
If the update wasn't mandatory to use PSN, it would have been one thing, but it was and it forced people who actually used a feature included with the console to stop using it in order to keep using the online service. I wouldn't even expect that kind of BS from Apple
@KeegdnaB "I wouldn't even expect that kind of BS from Apple"? Well, it's Sony you're talking about. The company that thought it would be a good idea to put rootkits on CDs... I have the suggestion that they lost touch with reality a while ago.
A lot of this has to due with principle. Also, if we allow Sony to do this now, just imagine the doors it opens for them. As for geohot, if he learned to keep his mouth shut, we wouldn't have had to deal with this, but it would've happened eventually, and yeah, he is gonna take a long time before he releases it.
Meh. It seems like there is always going to be something.
Make a comment Sprinkles!