fortnite – Page 4 – The Gaming News Corner

Epic offers $100 million for Fortnite compared to other esports games

Epic Games, the gaming studio behind Fortnite, announced yesterday that they will provide $100,000,000 to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions. How it will be distributed remains to be announced. Epic has stated that their approach “will be different…to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game.”

$100 million is the highest prize pool for any esports game event. Last year, Dota 2, Valve’s MOBA, had their International prize pool set at $24,687,919.00 thanks to players contributing to the pot bonus. It was split amongst the top 18 teams with 1st place taking about $10.8 million. How Fortnite will split the $100 million remains to be determined as this will be their first year hosting a prize pool.

Who will you be rooting for?

Sources:

Fortnite

List of highest prize pools for Esports

Epic Games and Fortnite cheaters Lawsuit finished

Epic Games, creators of Fortnite: Battle Royal, settles their lawsuit with one of its cheater: Charles Vraspir. If you’re curious on reading more about the allegation, you can read my previous article here. The lawsuit was from Epic Games regarding Charles Vraspir‘s usage of using aimbots and using cheats the game to deliberating targeting Twitch streamers in the game. He was also banned numerous times before the lawsuit. Vraspir was agreed to delete all software related to Addicted Cheats from his computer. He is forbidden from cheating on Fortnite and any Epic Games in the future. If he were to violate the policy, he would be charge a minimum of $5,000. The cheats affected the game code which was against the company’s policy: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Link to the injunction from Torrent Freak here.

In regards to the 14-year-old, Caleb “Sky Orbit” Rogers, his case is still being discussed. He was also caught using the same cheating software in the game but also creating tutorial guides on how to utilize cheats in Fortnite: Battle Royale. Epic issued a DMCA takedown on the video which Rogers contested. This led to legal action by Epic. However, they were unaware that Rogers was 14. Rogers’ mother contested the lawsuit based on his age that Rogers was not affected the sales of the game because it is free and the EULA was not binding because of his age. As of December 7, the lawsuit is still active against Rogers and the protection of anonymity is void because his mother put his name on her letter.

What do you think of Gaming companies taking legal action against cheaters? Do you feel that it crosses the line or that they have the legal right? Does making the game free affect your opinion on potential lawsuits?

Opinion:

I personally think suing the players is quite extreme. While I agree cheaters should be punished, I think permanently banning them or their IP address similar to Blizzard is more effective.

Sources:

Rolling Stones

Polygon

Epic sues 14-year old for cheat mods in Fortnite

Fortnite, Epic Games‘ battle royal type game, has an issue with cheat mods in the game and community. They have filed two civil complaints against two alleged associates who use cheats from Addicted Cheats to actively kill Twitch Streamers players live online. This is known as stream sniping. Players actively look at Streamers live cam footage to find them and actively hunt them from an unfair advantage.

The service from Addicted Cheats is $5 – $15 a month. It allows people to use aimbots and track players throughout the map. The cheat has to modify the game’s source code which is against Fornite’s End User License Agreement and the Copyright Act. Fortnite‘s rule of conduct doesn’t forbid stream sniping like Player Unknown Battlegrounds but forbids cheating. One defendant has been banned multiple times and has created multiple accounts and continued cheating. When asked why “Because its [sic] fun to rage and see streamers cry about how loaded they are and then get them stomped anyways.” He also found another way to cheat after Epic created a block on cheaters stating “Now method is exposed . . . Epic Eat my ass.” As you can tell, he doesn’t feel guilty over his actions.

The other accused is a 14-year-old. Whether Epic was aware of their age prior to the lawsuit. The mother is quite unhappy and has written a letter to the court which attacks Epic‘s handling of the case. TLDR version below from Kotaku:

She says that Fortnite’s terms require parental consent for minors and that she never gave this consent.
She says the case is based on a loss of profits but argues that it’s a free-to-play video game. In order to prove a loss Epic would need to provide a statement certifying that Rogers’ cheating directly caused a “mass profit loss”.
She claims that by going after individual players, rather than the websites selling/providing the software necessary to cheat in an online game, Epic is “using a 14-year-old child as a scapegoat”.
She claims that her son did not, as Epic allege, help create the cheat software, but simply downloaded it as a user, and that Epic “has no capability of proving any form of modification”.
Finally, the mother says that by releasing her son’s name publicly in conjunction with the move that Epic has violated Delaware laws related to the release of information on minors.

The 14-year-old lives in Delaware and can be sued for damages based on how much the considered loss in money Epic states in the lawsuit. The parent would have to pay the sum. Adolescents can also sign contracts but have different degrees. Epic has yet to respond on whether they will proceed on using the 14-year-old.

Sources

Kotaku

14-year-old sued with mother’s letter