“Fortnite” developer Epic Games is once again cracking down on cheaters with Youtubers ‘Golden Modz’ and ‘Excentric’ being sued by the company for allegedly selling Fortnite cheats through their videos.
Earlier this week, a legal complaint was filed against the defendants, Brandon Lucas (‘Golden Modz’) and Colton Conter (‘Excentric’) for “copyright infringement, deceptive trade practices and unfair methods of competition”. The Youtubers have been accused of “injecting unauthorised cheat software (‘cheats’ or ‘hacks’) into the copyright protected code of Epic’s popular video game”.
Lucas, with 1.7 million Youtube subscribers, allegedly used his own videos to promote his personal website, where he sold the cheats. While Conter, was said to have worked together with Lucas to promote the cheating software, with the two claiming they had gained “magical powers” that allowed them to easily win games in a number of their videos.
This type of action from Epic Games is not unusual, with the developer suing at least nine others for cheating over the past year - including a 14-year-old boy.
The developer has had its fair share of controversies with Gamers Classified reporting on an alleged cheating incident a few months ago, involving a winner from the game’s Summer Skirmish competition. From this we can tell that Epic Games takes cheating very seriously and with the recent introduction of in-game tournaments into Fortnite, the developer’s aim would be to scare off any cheaters who could potentially manipulate the system.
Other developers also take a no-tolerance stance to cheating with certain companies even targeting those making game breaking software. Last year, Blizzard was awarded $8.6 million in a lawsuit against German company, Bossland who had been creating and selling cheats for a number of Blizzard’s main titles, including: World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and Overwatch.
While many in the gaming community are quick to point out “hackers”, cheating in online games is an increasing issue. According to a survey by Irdeto, 60% of gamers, around the world, were negatively impacted while gaming because of cheaters, while 37% of gamers said that they had cheated before.
The meaning of “cheating” in video games has changed over the years. What was once just complex button combos and inputs of ‘motherlode’, has evolved into a practice that leads to lawsuits and copyright infringement. However, with 77% of players from across the globe stating that they are likely to stop playing a multiplayer game online if they experience cheating, it is in developers’ best interests to ensure their games are fair and free of hackers.
