A revised settlement agreement worth $3.75 million has been reached in the litigation over the loss of “Other OS” functionality in Sony’s “Fat” PlayStation 3.

The new settlement agreement supersedes an earlier agreement reached last year that failed to earn final court approval.

The Sony PlayStation 3 class action lawsuit began more than seven years ago, after Sony pushed out a firmware update that disabled the PlayStation 3’s functionality that allowed it to run on alternative operating systems like Linux.

Without downloading the v3.21 firmware update, gamers would be unable to play new PlayStation 3 games or Blu-ray videos, or to use the PlayStation Network.

Plaintiffs in the PlayStation 3 class action lawsuit allege firmware v3.21, issued on April 1, 2010, was purposely designed to disable Other OS functionality. They claim the Other OS feature was an essential reason for which they purchased the Fat PlayStation 3.







An earlier version of the PlayStation 3 settlement failed to earn the court’s final approval. After preliminary approval was granted and the parties began taking steps to administer the settlement, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers withheld final approval in February 2017.

Judge Rogers expressed concerns that the claims process required proof that many Class Members would not be able to provide. Claimants would have had to provide proof of purchase of a PlayStation 3 during the qualifying period, plus evidence that they used the Other OS functionality, that it played into their decision to purchase the product, or that they lost value because of the firmware update.

The judge was also concerned that only 11,300 claims had been filed despite 10 million relevant units having been sold.

Under the new version of the settlement, qualifying Class Members who submit valid and timely claims can get payments of up to $65 – an increase over the previous settlement’s $55 and $9 payments for members of two separate Classes.

Class Members who previously submitted a claim in connection with this settlement do not need to submit another claim. These Class Members may contact the settlement administrator with any questions about their prior claims or to update their contact information.







Class Members can object to the settlement’s terms or exclude themselves from the settlement by filing a written request by April 15, 2018.