The Cyprus-based video games company faces class action from U.S. consumers.

Wittels McInturff Palikovic (WMP), a class action and complex litigation firm in New York City, has been investigating numerous complaints from U.S. consumers regarding the video game company Nexters, which is accused of a range of manipulating activities regarding its multiplayer fantasy role-playing game for mobile and desktop devices, Hero Wars.

The Cyprus-based games developer is suspected of enforcing illegal practices pertaining to Hero Wars players, including locking consumers into subscriptions they cannot cancel, false sales, manipulation of game mechanics that render consumer in-game purchases worthless, using casino-style methods to extract payments from players, and the RPG’s pay-to-win model, WMP said in a statement.

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WMP lawyers have found evidence during their investigation that Nexters may have lured users into installing and playing Hero Wars through misleading ads on social media platforms, in other app-based games, and elsewhere online. The ads suggest Hero Wars is a problem-solving game, but once consumers begin to play the game, they report that none of the featured activities in the ads are actually present in gameplay.

Evidence further suggests that advancing in the game requires making in-game purchases, in what is commonly called “pay to win” in the gaming industry. Many consumers report signing up for recurring payments that were then impossible to cancel, and that the company makes obtaining refunds for purchases intentionally difficult, and it take months to receive a refund when allowed.

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Consumers also complain that Hero Wars is a “dressed up slot machine with bad odds” and that it costs thousands of dollars to make “meaningful progress,” with Nexters using “psychological addiction tactics” to “milk players out of their money.”

Hero Wars advertising lures with promotional “sale” prices of 80-90% off for in-app purchases, but in fact the prices remain the same at all times and the company is not offering a meaningful discount.

WMP, which boasts as an entity committed to achieving justice for consumers, employees, patients, and small companies; protecting consumers from unscrupulous and underhanded business practices, has already filed class actions against companies engaged in similar practices.

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Nexters was founded in 2010 by two Russian individuals, Andrey Fadeev and Boris Gertsovsky. Its first product, the strategy game Throne Rush, was released in 2013, gaining the attention of regulatory authorities in Germany for misleading practices.

By 2020, Nexters generated $318 million in bookings and $120 million in free cash flow to equity, with 35% of net bookings coming from the United States, 23% from Europe, and 19% from Asia. Its flagship product, Hero Wars RPG, was downloaded 36 million times in 2020 on iOS and Android.

In June 2023, Nexters Inc. restructured into the holding GDEV, becoming the largest wholly-owned subsidiary of GDEV along with current Nexters’ subsidiaries Cubic Games and Dragon Machines. As a consequence, GDEV replaced Nexters as the publicly-traded entity on NASDAQ.

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