A class action lawsuit has been launched against Google Stadia for "unfair and deceptive trade practices" stemming from Stadia's promise to run games in 4K and perform better than the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro.

The 42-page lawsuit targets Google, as well as Doom developer id Software and Destiny's Bungie, alleging that all three companies somehow deceived people about Stadia's ability to run all games at 4K at 60fps The company states. Originally filed in October 2020, the lawsuit has received increased attention since it was transferred to federal court.

id Software was targeted with respect to its initial claim that Doom Eternal was playable in true 4K on Stadia, but was later returned to 1080p at 60fps or upsampled to 2160p on 4K displays. The lawsuit also names other Doom games playable on Stadia and claims that id Software "unfairly earned millions of dollars" as a result of the misleading claims.

Bungie was sued on similar grounds, and the complaint alleges that the studio "knew or had knowledge that Destiny 2 was not playable at the 4K 60FPS gameplay offered by the Stadia Pro service, that Google had made misleading statements about the Stadia Pro subscription plan It is stated that "consumers knew or should have known that they were being misled about Destiny 2" and that "consumers were misled about Destiny 2.

The lawsuit also cites various tweets by Stadia and its vice president, Phil Harrison, including one in which Harrison states that all launch games for Stadia will run in 4K.

The lawsuit targets everyone in the U.S. who has purchased a Stadia Founders Edition, Stadia Premier Edition, and/or Stadia Pro sub-machine, and the plaintiffs claim that they and many others "believe that Stadia is a major gaming machines and based on online information and reports that it was more powerful than the machines and would display all games at 4K resolution."

Plaintiffs seek all monetary compensation, including damages, attorneys' fees, and a "waiver of all benefits, profits, and other compensation." The lawsuit also seeks more transparency from Google, demanding that Stadia disclose the resolution and frame rate of all games sold on its platform.

Whether this lawsuit will ultimately succeed remains to be seen. The demands from the plaintiffs are lengthy and make valid points about how Google marketed Stadia in the first place, but whether this would be grossly deceptive to consumers will now be debated by lawyers Andrew Spinks, co-creator of Terraria, angrily withdrew his plans to port "Stadia" after Google had trouble disabling his account.