Epic Games has lawyered up to combat Fortnite cheats, suing two YouTubers peddling cheats for copyright infringement and breach of contract.
YouTubers Brandon ‘Golden Modz’ Lucas and Cotton ‘Exentric’ Conter are both facing trouble for “injecting unauthorised cheat software”, before promoting this online in their videos, where they used malicious programs like autoaim hacks to troll other players.
The company isn’t messing around, either. In Epic’s official complaint (dug up by TorrentFreak) under “The Defendants and their Unlawful Acts” the Fortnite developer claims “defendants are cheaters” before going big and saying “Nobody likes a cheater. And Nobody likes playing with cheaters.”
This isn’t Epic’s first swing at cheaters, and they were banning waves of cheaters numbering in the thousands throughout 2017, in addition to taking over anticheat outfit Kamu earlier this month in what appears, externally, to be a bid to beef up their anticheat measures.
Related: Best Battle Royale Games
The big difference here is that these apparent cheats are cheating to promote the sale of Fortnite PC hacks on Lucas’ website. Currently, none of the Fortnite hacks are removed from sale, and indeed many of Lucas’ Fortnite have also been pulled down.
It’s a big step for Epic, but it seems the logical next step for Epic, who previously levelled several copyright strikes at his YouTube channel, which has 1.7m subscribers.
Framed in the concept of Fortnite’s place as a free to play game, it makes sense too. Free to play games largely revolve around the concept of whales, with the many millions of players getting into the game for free and never paying anything helping the ecosystem by being willing targets for players who have cash to spare and want to be clad in the latest cosmetics while fighting their way to a victory royale.
This doesn’t work if players start cheating, because much like a glue-laden coconut shy or a rigged casino, punters will start to steer clear if they think the game is rigged against them, which will have a major impact on Epic’s bottom line.
Would you cheat in Fortnite? We won’t judge, let us know on Twitter at @Trustedreviews
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
