An Australian man who sued Sony over the removal of the “Other OS” option in the PlayStation has had his case dismissed.
Sony revealed in March that version 3.21 of the PlayStation 3 firmware would, among other things, disable the “Other OS” option available on older PS3 consoles. The company said the move would “help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system,” but not everyone saw it in such a generous light. Numerous class action lawsuits were filed accusing Sony of misleading consumers by using the “Other OS” option as a selling point but then disabling it later. The separate actions were combined into one “mega-suit” in July.
The U.S. lawsuits are scheduled to begin this month but in Australia the matter has already been settled, at least for one PlayStation owner, and it’s good news for Sony. Michael Trebilcock of Adelaide had sued the company for AU$800 ($725), the cost of a backwards-flushing PS3, because the system “could no longer be used as a computer,” but his case has been dismissed. Reasons for the dismissal weren’t given, but the court had previously been told that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had found no fault in Sony’s actions regarding the upgrade.
The case will obviously have no impact on the U.S. lawsuits but it has to be giving Sony executives a little more optimism about their chances. And despite having his case dismissed, Trebilcock came away with some good news of his own: He wasn’t ordered to pay Sony’s legal costs.
Source: ABC News
