When free-to-play Fortnite launched, Epic Games promised to crack down on cheaters but it seems like they might be taking it a little too far.
The company has launched an aggressive legal campaign against certain individuals in which they're asking for up to $150,000 in damages. However, instead of inquiring about the cheaters, particularly their ages, Epic Games listed all of the defendants publicly. Considering that many gamers are minors, Epic's approach runs the risk of breaking local laws.
Today, the mother of one of the defendants revealed that her son was fourteen years old and Epic Games broke Delaware law by revealing his name. Additionally, she said that she never gave consent for her child to play Fortnite to begin with, which violates Fortnite's Terms of Service. The letter also stated that the child learned the cheats from a public website, so Epic Games should be going after the website instead.
It's likely that the lawsuit will be dismissed given the fact that Epic Games revealed the minor's name. However, Epic Games issued another statement to Game Informer in which they said the following.
Epic is not okay with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age. As stated previously, we take cheating seriously, and we'll pursue all available options to make sure our games are fun, fair, and competitive for players.
It doesn't seem like they're willing to let this go even though they made a severe blunder in the filing process. We'll keep you updated if we hear more about the lawsuit. Cheating sucks, but Epic's heavy-handed approach could come back to haunt them. Hopefully both parties can come together for an amicable solution.
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