Epic Games is suing an alleged leaker in North Carolina court over the infringement of trade secrets. The suit is based off of early unintended reveals of the next phase of Fortnite, the flagship game of the studio. The company temporarily ended public access to the game following ten seasons of post-launch content
The lawsuit was filed on October 25 in a North Carolina court, the state where Epic is based. The allegations are based around the alleged leaker having shared a huge variety of confidential details about the new version of the game in Fortnite Chapter 2 on social media. Ronald Sykes – or @invisiblellama9 – is accused of leaking these details a while back, before Chapter 2 was officially announced by Epic Games. Many of the details he shared were later confirmed by the announcement of Chapter 2, such as the ability to swim in-game. “Sykes attempted to ‘give the game away’ by leaking Epic’s secrets and spoiling the suspense that Epic had been working to generate and build for months in the run up to Fortnite Chapter 2,” according to the suit.
The damage alleged by the suit is also pretty severe. Epic Games is seeking maximum possible damages for the claims involved, and is seeking injunctive relief and maximum damages. In specificity, breach of contract and infringement of trade secrets are cited as “As a direct result of Sykes’ breach of his contractual obligations under his NDA, Epic has sustained and will continue to sustain damages in an amount to be determined,” as the lawsuit states.
A ruling is obviously still pending, as the suit has yet to land in front of a judge. It’s highly possible that more details will be uncovered during discovery or a later process in the case, although we will have to wait and see what develops.
Ironically, this isn’t the first time Epic has had to sue over Fortnite. Although another infamous case didn’t involve leaks, it was actually over a ridiculously low-effort fan festival in Norwich UK that went really poorly.
Fortnite is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, and Android.
