A class action lawsuit accuses Sony of violating consumer fraud statutes and breaching warranty agreements because of an alleged defect with the PS5 DualSense wireless controllers.
The class action suit alleges that the DualSense controllers, which were released in November along with the new PS5 console, suffer from a defect known as “drift,” wherein characters or other elements on screen move without the user manipulating the controller’s joystick.
The complaint claims that the plaintiff, Lmarc Turner, experienced a controller drift issue on the day he purchased a PS5 in early February.
“Given that his experience with contacting Sony the first time did not satisfactorily address the drift issue,” Turner opted to purchase another DualSense controller for $69. 99 a few days later, the complaint says.
The suit also alleges that Sony has been aware of the drift issue because of “online consumer complaints, complaints made by consumers directly to it, and through its own pre-release testing. “
“One user reported the issue 10 days after receiving the PS5 console, stating that they tried every possible fix — power-cycling the console, turning Bluetooth on and off, resetting the controller, and charging it fully overnight — to no avail,” the complaint says.
The suit alleges that customers seeking help with their devices have run into a backlog on Sony’s dedicated portal for issues with PS5 hardware, and face long wait times to speak with customer service agents.
It claims that when consumers return the controllers for in-warranty repairs related to drift, they “have to pay for shipping the controller to a Sony repair center . . .
The lawsuit seeks to make Sony implement a recall or free replacement program to address the issue for all class members, in addition to other relief such as damage payments to compensate consumers for out of pocket expenses to fix the alleged defect.
