In 2014, Trion Worlds offered a 10 percent discount on cash shop items for buyers of founder packs of the MMORPG ArcheAge, but never delivered this discount. This led to a lawsuit that is still ongoing in 2018.
Those who wanted to purchase a founder pack of the MMORPG ArcheAge were supposed to receive a 10 percent discount on cash shop purchases. This is what was stated in 2014 on the MMORPG’s website. However, this discount was never granted.
In the official forum, Trion Worlds explained that the effort to develop this discount was enormous and the founders would have to wait a long time for it. Therefore, the officials at Trion Worlds decided instead to grant the founders a 10 percent bonus on credits.
Trion Worlds in Trouble
This led to a class action lawsuit from some players. To this day, there is still no outcome, and there is a reason for that. The lawsuit not only includes the 10 percent discount on cash shop purchases that was never delivered but also the accusation that the loot boxes of ArcheAge are illegal gambling.
. The lawsuit includes:
- The granted 10 percent bonus on credits is no adequate substitute for the 10 percent discount on cash shop purchases
- Trion Worlds engaged in misleading advertising regarding the discount
- The loot boxes are fraud
- The chance of receiving something valuable from the loot boxes is extremely low
- Even players who spent about 15,000 credits on loot boxes received only a few items that were worth almost nothing
- The loot boxes are nothing more than an illegal lottery
Loot Boxes are a Problem
It is precisely this accusation that loot boxes are an illegal lottery that is one of the points holding up the entire lawsuit. Basically, a court would have to decide that loot boxes are against the law. And that’s a shoe that many courts probably do not want to put on, as this would have enormously far-reaching consequences for the entire industry.
The lawsuit will not be settled out of court
Furthermore, there is a problem with the EULA and the “Terms of Use” at Trion Worlds, as both somewhat contradict each other. While the “Terms of Use” provide for the out-of-court settlement of such disputes, the EULA refers to the district court in San Mateo.
Trion Worlds wanted to settle the matter out of court, which would have put the company in a much better position. However, since this contradiction was noticed, an out-of-court settlement has been denied. The EULA takes precedence. Additionally, it must be clarified whether some of the contents of the “Terms of Use” are even illegal. Therefore, the case continues to be litigated in court.
It may take quite a while for this lawsuit to come to a conclusion in court.
With the ArcheAge court case, the site MMOFallout has dealt extensively with. However, both their article and our article on the case do not claim to provide a legal assessment, as we are not lawyers.
The Chaos Week of ArcheAge 2014
The background of the lawsuit is the hurried disastrous launch of ArcheAge in 2014. Back then, Trion Worlds wanted to launch their new MMORPG ArcheAge between WildStar (June 3, 2014) and the then WoW expansion Warlords of Draenor (November 13).
For this purpose, Trion Worlds put in overtime, accelerated the transition from an orderly closed beta through an open beta to the head start leading up to the release on September 16, 2014, and the first major content patches. A lot went wrong at that time, including with the founder packs.
Although ArcheAge celebrated great success and generated high interest from players at launch, the attention waned relatively quickly, and there were numerous problems.
Even outside of such matters, there is ongoing criticism of the MMORPG ArcheAge.
