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Google and Roblox Defeat Videogame Addiction Lawsuit-Courtright v. Epic Games
The plaintiff claims that “video games are designed, marketed, and sold in a way that creates and sustains addiction in users.” This becomes the anchor for a mondo 260 page complaint against Epic Games, Roblox, Mojang, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Another...
The allegedly addictive features identified by Plaintiff include “microtransactions and other in-game monetization systems,” “near miss[es],” “exciting animations,” “chasing,” “[f]ear of missing out,” “exclusivity” of prizes, “entrapment,” “sunk cost effect,” “loot boxes,” “rubber-banding,” “pay-to-win models,” “reward systems,” “artificial intelligence and bots,” and “dark patterns.” Those features constitute facets of ready-to-play video games that the Platform Defendants make available to users through Google Play and Roblox; in other words, the features are created and developed by third-party information content providers, which the Platform Defendants then make available. Citing the Brown SCOTUS ruling, the court says “Where a plaintiff seeks to hold a video game developer liable for the content of their products, strict scrutiny applies.” At the same time, the defendants may not be in the causal change, and the lawsuits are censorial in intent and effect when plaintiffs try to convert standard product marketing techniques into mass-torts.
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