The class action lawsuit lead by US law firm Robbins Geller which accuses the publisher of misleading investors on the performances of Battlefield 4 between July 24th and December 4th, and “charges Electronic Arts and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”

EA is accused of issuing “materially false and misleading statements” between the two dates “highlighting the purported strength of the Company’s rollout of version 4 of its all-important Battlefield video game series, which had provided approximately 11% of its revenues in fiscal 2012.

“Based on the purported strength of the Battlefield 4 rollout then underway, defendants issued strong fiscal 2014 financial guidance for the Company and actually increased that guidance on October 29, 2013. The price of Electronic Arts’ stock steadily climbed on these statements, reaching a Class Period high of $28.13 per share by August 23, 2013 and allowing certain of Electronic Arts’ senior executives to sell their Electronic Arts stock at artificially inflated prices.”

The complaint also references Battlefield 4′s launch bugs, which saw the company’s share price dive after it was revealed that EA had halted development of future DICE projects and Battlefield 4 DLC in order to focus on fixing the game.

It continues: “The price of Electronic Arts stock fell on these disclosures, declining more than 7% from a close of $25.96 per share on November 14, 2013 to close at $24.06 per share on November 15, 2013. Then, on December 4, 2013, it was disclosed through discussions defendants had with video game bloggers that due to bugs, connectivity issues, server limitations, and various other problems plaguing Battlefield 4, Electronic Arts had been forced to indefinitely halt the Battlefield 4 rollout and other projects until the problems with Battlefield 4 could be fixed.

“The price of Electronic Arts shares declined on this news from a close of $22.34 on December 4, 2013 to close at $21.01 on December 5, 2013, sending the share price down more than 28% from its Class Period high.”

The complaint goes on to label statements made by EA between July 24th and December 4th as being “materially false and misleading because they failed to disclose and misrepresented the following adverse facts which were known to or recklessly disregarded by defendants:

“(a) Battlefield 4 was riddled with bugs and multiple other problems, including downloadable content that allowed players access to more levels of the game, a myriad of connectivity issues, server limitations, lost data and repeated sudden crashes, among other things;

“(b) as a result, Electronic Arts would not achieve a successful holiday season 2013 rollout of Battlefield 4;

“(c) the performance of the Electronic Arts unit publishing Battlefield 4 was so deficient that all other projects that unit was involved in had to be put on hold to permit it to focus its efforts on fixing Battlefield 4;

“and (d) as a result, Electronic Arts was not on track to achieve the financial results it had told the market it was on track to achieve during the Class Period.”

Battlefield 4 launched on October 29th, 2013, for last-gen consoles and released on PS4 and Xbox One when said consoles saw their respective launches in the month of November.

Via Business Wire.

Here’s the statement sent first to Polygon:

First, we want to thank the fans out there that are playing and supporting us with Battlefield 4. We know we still have a ways to go with fixing the game — it is absolutely our No. 1 priority.  The team at DICE is working non-stop to update the game. Since Battlefield 4 China Rising expansion pack was already in the final stages of development by the time issues began with Battlefield 4, we decided to fulfill our promise to deliver it this week, but we’re not moving onto future projects or expansions until we sort out all the issues with Battlefield 4. We know many of our players are frustrated, and we feel their pain. We will not stop until this is right.

So here’s to hoping it all works out for DICE, because this whole mess has already greatly stained the beloved franchise.

EA has responded to complaints from Battlefield 4 players trying to download and play Battlefield 4′s latest expansion pack China Rising, acknowledging that users “may run into an occasional hiccup, issue, glitch, or problem that could interrupt or prohibit your gameplay”.

In an update on its support site, EA said that it was aware of problems tied to users accessing China Rising servers and being disconnected shortly after joining a match.

“Some PC players of Battlefield 4 China Rising have found themselves getting kicked from servers within seconds of joining,” said the publisher. “DICE have identified the issue and is implementing a solution to the problem. This fix will take some time to be fully completed, but players should be noticing normal gameplay behavior soon.”

The problem appears to be worse on Xbox 360.

“Some Xbox 360 Battlefield 4 China Rising players have been unable to join China Risingservers after installing their downloadable content,” said EA. “We’re investigating this issue and will provide updates as quickly as possible.”

DICE has responded in a post on Battlelog: “This is probably related to crashes stopping the game reports from being sent to Battlelog,” the developer said. “We are still investigating this issue in more detail. Note that your progress sometimes can seem to be reset during server maintenance windows. In these cases, your stats will be just fine and reappear later.”

DICE added that it’s “still investigating the issue of single player save files being corrupted for some players,” and asked those affected to described describe… the steps leading up to the save file being corrupted, your platform (PC, PS3 or X360), and when the issue occurred. If you’re on PC, please also list your OS and system specs.”

The developer has been trying to keep up with the problems facing Battlefield 4, with multiple server-side updates already rolled out and more to come — which has already fixed some issues like server queues, server crashes, Missions and reloading.

“We would like to thank all players who have been reporting their issues to us,” DICE went on, “your feedback is invaluable when making sure we can deliver the Battlefield 4 experience you all deserve. In true DICE fashion, we will keep supporting Battlefield 4 for a long time, and we appreciate your feedback and patience as we work these issues out.”

Have you been experiencing problems? Share them here, we’ll pass it on to DICE.