FTC rules Sony misled consumers about the PS Vita

Sony has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission regarding claims that the company misled consumers about the capabilities of the PS Vita.  Branded as the “Never Stop Playing” device, Sony touted features of the PS Vita that weren’t quite as prominent as advertising suggested, and now Sony is being required to issue refunds to PS Vita purchasers who may have been affected by the misleading advertising.

A press release from the FTC reveals that despite their advertising promoting things like remote play, cross save, and real-time 3G, customers really couldn’t use these features in the manners they were advertised.

While the PS Vita has taken big strides towards making a lot of these claims a reality after the launch of the PlayStation 4, especially in the case of the remote play functionality and cross save features, the fact of the matter is, many games did not support this functionality between the PS3 and PS Vita.  Those that did have cross saves, required customers two own two copies of the game — again, this was something that was misleading in the advertising of the device.  Hardly any games on the PS3 were playable on the PS Vita through remote play, not even games that were used in the pre-launch advertising.

The punishment?  Customers who purchased a PS Vita before June 1st, 2012 will be eligible for a refund, and Sony will be contacting said customers via email after the settlement is finalized.  Sony is barred from making similarly misleading advertising claims in the future, and will be providing either a $25 cash or credit refund, or a $50 mechandise voucher for select video games, and/ or services.