Square Enix being sued by FFXI player

By Oli Welsh Published 25 June, 2009

For allegedly concealing monthly fees.

According to the Courthouse News Service, Square Enix is being sued by a customer for not being open about the fees and late-payment penalties for playing its MMO Final Fantasy XI.

Esther Leong from San Francisco has brought a class action lawsuit against the US arm of the Japanese RPG giant, claiming that Square Enix deceived 100,000 customers by lying about or concealing "its monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions, and other things that should have been fully disclosed at points of purchase".

The suit seeks damages of over USD 5 million on behalf of players and alleges "unfair business practices, false advertising, and unjust enrichment".

There's a copy of FFXI on the desk here which says "subscription fees required to play" in small but quite legible print on the front of the box. That's all we're saying. Thanks to 1up for the spot.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bearintraining #1 3 years ago

    /yawn
    Some people can spend too much money on lawyers.

  • TheWretched #2 3 years ago

    People should spend more money on lawnmowers!

  • Vistrix #3 3 years ago

    The late payment fees smallprint is hard to find in the PlayOnline service but its there...

    FFXI has the worst payment/login system I've ever experienced. Worse than Metal Gear Online.

  • Eraser #4 3 years ago

    late payment fees?
    In other words, it's her that has been damaging squenix by not making her payments on time.

  • menage #5 3 years ago

    5 million? I wish someone would punch these people in the face and throw them of the planet. Fucking leeches.
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 09:23

  • Andytails #6 3 years ago

    I was under the impression that "late payment" bumped your account offline until you paid them...

    Damages on behalf of the player's for 5 million? How much are they going to share then? Bullshit.

  • Hypercube #7 3 years ago

    FFXI has the worst payment/login system I've ever experienced.

    Amen to that. It was the third MMO I'd ever tried, and just setting up the various logins and credentials confused the heck out of me.

    Great game though.

  • cyacomini #8 3 years ago

    late payment fees? interest?

    Next they'll be charging £35 per item for rejected payments.

  • GreyBeard #9 3 years ago

    Yeah, I'm kind of surprised about the mention of "late-fees". Been playing FFXI off and on for the last 5 years and have never come across a situation where they would be demanded. If your CC expires it just refuses your login until the details are updated.

    As for POLl being confusing, its not that bad really after the initial setup where you need to bind the content id's, set up mail etc.

    Although if you opt for the new SE ID and security token, that can be a bit of a minefield!

  • wellzy4eva #10 3 years ago

    concealing monthly fees? wouldn't alarm bells start going off when the game openly asks you to enter your credit card details?

    Most people do not read terms and conditions upon anything; loans, games, insurance and so on... but it sickens me that people try this, all it takes is a stupid jury and this could be used as an example against a lot of MMO's and paying systems.

    Can I sue Microsoft because I bought a XBOX360 and didn't know you had to pay to play games online? one day they won't have pictures and synopsis on the back of games, they'll just have legal small print (Like packets of peanuts needing allergy warnings that it contains nuts)

  • Grogmonkey #11 3 years ago

    @wellzy4eva

    Was thinking a similar thing. I always read the T&Cs for anything new that I'm signing up to; jobs, games, insurance forms, all that jazz. It's just common God-damned sense! You're signing your name (and potentially account details) to it! That stuff is important.

  • Bravestinsane #12 3 years ago

    For some unknown reason i wasn't supprised it was an American.

    This lawsuit is ball i havn't played the game but if its like every other mmo perhaps he should look into the word "Recurring" as it's at the end of most monthly based subscriptions the fucking retard. The T&C would explain the rest as well...

    Damages to all players bollocks, i bet he wont pay them all back.
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 11:21

  • wellzy4eva #13 3 years ago

    If this succeeds, you can kiss goodbye to 30 day trials.

    lol, picture a ticker tape going across the top of the screen (You are now paying for this game, by paying for this game you have agreed to all terms and conditions)

    I'm waiting for someone to try to sue computer games for the advertising you get in them corrupting their children or something.

    anyway, after 1up boasting that Final Fantasy VII has sold over 100,000 copies on PSN and Square Enix owning one of the biggest franchises in gaming history, I doubt they are that bothered by this, a drop in the ocean.

    Square Enix Legal official: We're being sued by yet another american.
    Square Enix mangagement: Release another Final Fantasy on...the DS, yea that'll cover it, oh and punish the English speaking fools by making them wait a year for this one...
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 11:49

  • raion #14 3 years ago

    In the name of gamers everywhere, gimme 5 millions so I can live happily ever after!

  • Entity #15 3 years ago

    The only thing that pissed me off was them taking my money towards the end of a month, only to get eight days subsciption. Now that is a shitty subscription model for the consumer!

    I learnt my lesson though, just didn't re-subscribe "during" the month.

    Still... will be their bitch again when XIV comes out.

  • Slipstream #16 3 years ago

    Wow couldn't she have waited until Final Fantasy XIII was released, selfish moo!

    But seriously, she does sound selfish, because if it is truly stated as people are saying, and she's still blindly going ahead with it? Well, karma will have its way with her.

  • superdelphinus #17 3 years ago

    that's only £50 each isn't it?

  • lucifon #18 3 years ago

    I support this to be honest. I've been screwed over by their horrible billing service and customer support. So apparently before a billing month their billing servers go offline for many hours beforehand. So i went to cancel my subscription before they were due to go offline yet the system told me it couldnt be done as they were offline. Ended up being billed for a month of not playing what so ever. Tried arguing with the usual foreign customer "support" person on the end of the line but got nowhere. And since then I have never played FFXI because of it. Worst company ive ever had to deal with for online gaming.