Has a video game ever cost you a good night's sleep? A man from Russia has been there, done that, and more. Struggling to cope with the consequences, he is suing Bethesda Softworks - the makers of post-apocalyptic role-playing Fallout series - after he 'inadvertently' went on a three-week binge gaming session through the nuclear wasteland of Fallout 4.
Speaking to state-sponsored news channel Russia Today, the 28-year-old who lives in the heartland of Siberia said his intention was to play it in the evenings after work and he had no idea when "three weeks flew by".
Not only was he fired from his job, he stopped seeing his friends, and his health took a hit (in real life) owing to the lack of sleep and food. On top of that, his wife left him.
"If I knew that this game could have become so addictive, I would have become a lot more wary of it. I would not have bought it, or I would have left it until I was on holiday or until the New Year holidays," he added in a statement.
The unidentified man is now suing Bethesda on account of "emotional distress" for RUB 500,000 (approximately Rs. 4,67,000).
While this may be the first such case in Russia, in 2010 an American man took the makers of Lineage II to court for very similar reasons and won (sort of). The game's South Korean creators were forced to pay his legal fees that had been racked up over the course of six months.
Fallout 4 released last month for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC and sold 12 million copies in the 24 hours after launch.
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