Epic sue over 'irreparable injury' caused by Fortnite leaks
New to Fortnite: Orbital Legal Strikes
Perhaps inspired by their recent meteor-dropping event in Fortnite, Epic Games are aiming a megaton weight at one of their former QA contractors. They claim that former QA guy Thomas Hannah leaked the true target of May's map-changing meteor back in late April, giving hints to someone who then posted about it on Reddit in a now-deleted post. Epic Games claim that they've suffered "actual losses" and "irreparable injury" as a result, and filed to sue him for full damages on May 7th.
As reported by Polygon, Hannah's legal defence is that the leak reaching Reddit was something he had no knowledge of and minimal control over, denying Epic's claim that he intentionally worked with someone to leak the information. He claims that in a private conversation some time after he had finished working at Epic on April 4th. The third party in question - Adam DiMarco - had pumped him for info on the upcoming event with a torrent of questions and guesses, and Hannah had no idea that the final target of the meteor would be posted on April 24th Reddit by DiMarco, under the username 'internetadam'.
While many Fortnite players were excitedly guessing as to where the much-teased meteor would be landing (and which part of the map would be renovated in the process), the early reveal via Reddit that it would be obliterating the Dusty Depot part of the map - now Dusty Divot - didn't seem to dull enthusiasm much. Nobody even knew whether the leak was accurate or not until the event actually happened.
Epic not only seek damages for violating the non-disclosure agreement, but also full attorney's fees paid. Unsurprisingly, Thomas Hannah is requesting that the judge opt to not financially atomise him. Quite what the absurdly successful company hope to extract from a lone QA contractor is beyond me. This isn't the first time that Epic have been this excessively litigious, either, with a case against a 14-year-old Fortnite cheater still pending, as covered by PC Gamer here.
I can only hope that both of these cases are dropped or settled out of court for a nominal fee, and that nobody involved ends up bankrupted, homeless or otherwise left without a penny to their name. I also hope that someone at Epic's legal department invests in a stress ball, punching bag or large plush animal to cuddle, as they're clearly not venting correctly.
Credit to Polygon for uploading the full text of the Epic's complaint and Hannah's defence.