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Sony Government PlayStation (Games)

Sony To Offer Partial Refunds For PS Vita 60

mpicpp sends this report from the Houston Chronicle: "Hundreds of thousands of people who bought the handheld gaming console PlayStation Vita are in line for a partial refund from Sony because of questionable claims in its advertising. The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it had reached a settlement with Sony Computer Entertainment America, the U.S.-based arm of the PlayStation business, over advertising claims that the government contended were misleading.

As part of the proposed settlement, Sony will provide refunds to those who bought the PS Vita console before June 1, 2012. They'll be eligible for either a $25 cash or credit refund — or a $50 merchandise voucher from Sony. ... Among the claims challenged by the FTC: That the pocket-sized console would revolutionize gaming mobility by allowing consumers to play their PlayStation 3 games via "remote play" on the console anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection, [and] that people could engage in "cross-platform" play by starting a game on a PlayStation 3, pausing it, and continuing the game with the PS Vita from where they left off. Not really true, the FTC said.
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Sony To Offer Partial Refunds For PS Vita

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  • Questionable claims (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Thanshin ( 1188877 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2014 @08:20AM (#48466203)

    I wonder what would happen if citizens could sue the government for "questionable claims during campaign".

    • We'd have one continuous legal battle from now until the sun burns out?

    • That of course assumes that any government would pass a law allowing this kind of thing.

      Governments don't tend to do that kind of thing. In fact, they tend to give themselves exemptions.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Simple: the citizens in question would find themselves on a watch list. Some... "Unpleasant" consequences would ensue. You will find that it's very, very unsettling having to face the absolute power of the State utterly alone, without your fellow wannabe "rebels" behind you.

    • I wonder what would happen if citizens could sue the government for "questionable claims during campaign".

      Nothing good. These are the same citizens who get to vote again every few years, yet keep voting the same people in. Why would getting courts involved do anything but make politics even more vicious and dysfunctional?

      I suppose if you want the nation to collapse...

  • by mwvdlee ( 775178 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2014 @08:33AM (#48466253) Homepage

    From TFA

    The FTC also alleged that Deutsch LA misled consumers by asking employees to post positive tweets about the console on their personal Twitter accounts — without disclosing their connection to the ad agency or Sony.

    There is no such thing as a personal twitter account.
    There are only corporate twitter accounts and anonymous twitter accounts which your employer does not know about.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by sholden ( 12227 )

      Which category does the twitter account of a non-incorporated business owner go in?
      Which category does the twitter account of a retired person go in?
      Which category does the twitter account of an unemployed person go in?

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        Which category does the twitter account of a retired person go in?
        Which category does the twitter account of an unemployed person go in?

        That's the "employer discovered the Twitter account the employee thought was anonymous" bucket!

    • There is no such thing as a personal twitter account.

      "of or concerning one's private life, relationships, and emotions rather than matters connected with one's public or professional career."

    • I disagree. My employer actually knows about my Twitter account. However, I don't tweet anything about my day job. I don't even mention where I work ever. The things I discuss on Twitter are totally separate from my work. If my employer ever told me to start posting glowingly positive things about my company on my personal Twitter account, I'd refuse on the grounds that it is my personal account, not a work account. If they wanted to open a company Twitter account and have me manage it - posting posit

      • I guess it depends where you work and how high you are in the company hierarchy for this to be effective though. Somebody like Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle, couldn't have a "personal" Twitter account, because he is so well known, and anything he said would be taken under suspicion as being connected to the company. Looking further down the line, you got guys like Scott Hanselman of Microsoft, who tries to maintain a personal blog and podcast, but you still see plenty of people calling
      • "Bleeding over" is the old paradigm where you could choose not to discuss certain things at work, and they would generally remain outside the workplace. These days, many companies are getting out the needles and actively sucking the blood from wherever it can be found. If you haven't noticed this at your own company, you are either lucky to work at one of the few business with integrity, or you have spent your life very effectively keeping your head down, way down, into the sand. Even just here on Slashdot,
        • by lgw ( 121541 )

          It still astonishes me that people do personal stuff in the internet using their real name. I still can't get my head around that.

          It's not like anyone's successfully hiding their identity from the NSA these days, sure, but from a casual search of your name by your boss? I don't even show up, except for my LinkedIn account.

          • My real name on Slashdot is an artifact of me signing up in the late 90's when I didn't care about using my real name online. For most other activities online, nowadays, I use a pseudonym and I take care not to link the two. If I could change my username from my real name to my pseudonym, I would. I don't want to simply abandon this account and come back in as a new user under my pseudonym, though.

        • I've heard of employers who do this. I'm lucky enough that my employer doesn't. I wasn't responding that company snooping on personal social media activity never happens, though. I was responding to a statement that personal Twitter accounts don't exist. That there are only "corporate twitter accounts and anonymous twitter accounts which your employer does not know about." There are still some places that respect employees enough to allow them to post their personal stuff on their own time without inte

    • by Trogre ( 513942 )

      That has to be the silliest statement I have read today.

      And I spent much of this morning reading YouTube comments.

  • What about those two claims was specifically not followed through on from a technical perspective? I saw the commercials that claimed it did both of those and they were pretty black and white. All the article says was that less than all games supported pausing and resuming on the Vita. There has to be more to it.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    ...Buy Sony.

    • Certainly gone that way. Such a shame, the PS3 & Other OS got me off pc gaming and onto the console.

      PS4 gets me off the console and back into PC gaming. (luckily I didn't buy a PS4 before finding out online play was now pay monthly. So knew not to bother)

      • Since when is it pay monthly. My understanding is that it may require PS+ which isn't the same thing.
        • PS+ is a subscription service
          And
          https://support.us.playstation... [playstation.com]

          Which is why I didn't end up buying one.
          Went round to a friends to see if it was worth getting. "Lets fire up multiplayer then" - "We can't, you have to pay extra for that".

          Then Battlefield 4 came out on the PS3 (it was advertised as PS4 "exclusive") which settled the argument. (BF4 is still a crashy pile of shite btw, but only FPS other than BF3 with realistic helicopters afaik)

          Next title I play regularily will be back on the PC, which I have

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