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Update: There has been an update to this ongoing story. It turns out that one of the two defendants in this case is a 14 year-old boy who simply posted a video online showing the cheats in action. He did not create the cheats being shown as originally thought and his mother has called for the lawsuit to be dropped. You can find the full update, HERE.
Original Story (12/10/17): Epic Games has been trying its best to stay on top of cheating in Fortnite’s free to play Battle Royale mode. During the first two weeks, the developers have banned thousands of players for cheating and given that this game is free to play, the studio has had to ban certain players more than once. Now, Epic is taking things a step further, having filed lawsuits against two specific cheaters, who wrote their own code and repeatedly returned to the game to “wreak havoc”.
We have seen companies like Blizzard and Riot Games go after cheat providers in the past with successful results and now Epic seems to be joining the club. TorrentFreak managed to get hold of two complaints, one filed against a ‘Mr. Broom’ and another filed against ‘Mr. Vraspir’. Both are accused of violating the terms of service/EULA agreement by cheating. Epic’s complaint also claims that by cheating, these two individuals also committed copyright infringement.
Here is an exact quote from the complaint: “Defendant’s cheating, and his inducing and enabling of others to cheat, is ruining the game playing experience of players who do not cheat. The software that Defendant uses to cheat infringes Epic’s copyrights in the game and breaches the terms of the agreements to which Defendant agreed in order to access the game”.
The complaint then goes on to note that Epic had to ban this person “at least nine times”. However, they continued to create fresh new accounts in order to cheat in the game. Both defendants in this case are apparently connected to a specific cheat provider as moderators or support personnel. They apparently aim to target streamers specifically in order to brag about it later.
Both defendants in this case face up to $150,000 in statutory damages for copyright infringement.
KitGuru Says: This is quite a strong message for Epic Games to send. However, whether or not it is enough to deter cheaters remains to be seen. Have many of you playing Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode? Have you encountered many cheaters?
Hah, good luck Epic, would be funny to see cheaters hit with a real life penalty.
Fair play Epic, about time someone stood up to cheaters. I lead a clean life so I do not have to watch over my shoulder. About time cheaters started to get twitchy.
kudos to Epic!
Actually they have, in all sense of the law, a very valid and good case against these two defendants. I believe Blizzard won their case regarding cheaters. I also believe that in the case of Riot, they successfully sued someone who had gained financial rewards from creating cheats and selling them to other users. I believe the person behind this cheat was ordered by the courts to donate the entire proceeds from selling his cheat to charity. Hence, I truly believe we will be seeing a lot more of these types of measures being taken in the future by software developers, instead of the “run of the mill” bans as of up to now.
Would be a good next step in the constant battle against cheaters — they do nothing but ruin MP for everyone, so seeing more concrete measures being taken against them is positive.