Epic Games should work up a sweat: A group of Canadian parents is suing the studio. The subject of the dispute is the Battle Royale long-running Fortnite. It was submitted in 2019, but had to be put on hold due to various problems. Now she’s picking up speed.
Anyone who thinks that Fortnite’s popularity is slowly decreasing is very wrong. The Battle Royale is still very popular, and developer Epic Games recently dared to do so jump on the Unreal Engine 5. Free-to-play is still very popular, especially among the younger generation. But that could be the game’s undoing now, at least in Canada.
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In America’s northern neighbor, a law firm is preparing a class action lawsuit against Epic Games. This comes from a group of parents who accuse the studio of having “knowingly developed a very, very addictive game”. The three Quebec legal guardians accuse Fortnite and Epic Games of causing “mental, physical and financial harm” to their offspring.
The reason: the children would have spent several hundred hours in Fortnite, which caused them to distance themselves from their families. You want hard numbers? In two years, a child is said to have spent a total of 7,200 hours playing. Eating, drinking, personal hygiene and other basic needs were completely neglected. The lawsuit was accompanied by a document from a doctor attesting to one of the offspring’s cyber addiction.
Anyone who now sees the parents as having an obligation has decided to do something against one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. According to him, the games are “developed with algorithms and dark patterns that are meant to be addictive,” which is impossible to control. Often you can first see how bad Fortnite was developed when it’s too late.
Of course, Epic Games does not want to let these allegations sit and defends itself. In the past, systems were only implemented to give parents better control. Guardians can thus monitor the playing time, and there would also be a daily spending limit for gamers under the age of 13.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2019. However, a court first had to decide whether it should be seen as serious or not. According to the competent judge, however, it was not given up lightly or impulsively, nor was it unfounded. So we can be curious to see how this case turns out. If the parents are right, it could well have an impact on Fortnite’s international operations.
After the final event, Fortnite is now entering the fourth chapter.
