At the end of 2019, the law firm Calex Légal filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for making Fortnite: Battle Royale so addictive. Allegedly, this title was designed to keep players hooked and even compared to drugs such as cocaine.
Battle Royale’s popularity has continued to grow ever since and, shockingly, the conflict is still raging. Against all odds, authorities decided to give the green light to this class action lawsuit that is now going to court. Epic Games are aware of this and opined again on the case.
The lawsuit relies heavily on video game disorder, an illness recognized by the World Health Organization in 2019. Plaintiffs claim that Epic Games used experts to make Fortnite highly addictive, which has created various types of problems for players.
Judge in charge of the case believes that the parents involved have enough reasons and material to defend their position, which is why he decided to approve the class action lawsuit. Thus, the case will now go to court and Epic Games has to come to its defense.
“The Court finds that the facts alleged about the plaintiffs’ sons permit a claim, if we place them in relation to the statements of certain experts about the creation of an addiction to video games, more particularly to Fortnite, plaintiffs have a valid product liability claim against defendants. That claim does not appear to be frivolous or manifestly unfounded,” the authorities stated.
Epic Games Does Not Agree With the Lawsuit or the Authorities
An Epic Games spokesperson responded to the approval of the lawsuit and asserted that it has no factual basis. Company pointed out that parents can at all times monitor the experience their children have, and there are restrictions related to how much time they play and spend.
“We have industry-leading parental controls that allow parents to monitor their children’s digital experience. Parents can receive play time reports that track the amount of time their child plays each week and require parental permission before making purchases, so they can make the right decisions for their family. We also recently added a default daily spending limit for players under the age of 13. We plan to fight this in court. This recent decision only allows the case to continue. We believe the evidence will show that this case is without merit,” the firm stated.
We’ll just have to wait to find out the conclusion of this controversy. It’s worth remembering that there is research claiming Fortnite should not be considered addictive.
Fortnite is available to play on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and mobile.
