Epic in hot water for suing a 14 year old

Named him too

Gaming outfit Epic is trying to sue a 14 year old boy for cheating in its games and while the outfit is right to be hard on cheats, it might have bitten off more than it can chew in this case.

To be fair, the boy was a pain in the arse. He was banned 14 times from playing Fortnite, yet persisted in creating alternate accounts using false names. He also repeatedly engaged in stream sniping, which is the act of watching a streamer, joining their game and using their stream to identify where they are and kill them. Epic claims it is losing profits from the kid’s antics.

However where Epic went wrong was that it sued the kid and also named him publically. Naming a minor is naughty, particularly in court cases, and you will not catch us doing it.

The boy’s mum is also hacked off. She alleges that she never gave parental consent for her son to even play Fortnite, while arguing that if the case is based on loss of profits, Epic would need to provide a statement proving a “mass profit loss” due to the boy’s actions. She suggests that Epic should be targeting those sites selling the cheats rather than the cheaters themselves.

She also pointed out that releasing her son’s name in public has violated local laws in Delaware.

“It is my belief that due to their lack of ability to curve cheat codes and others from modifying their game, they are using a 14-year-old child as a scapegoat to make an example of him”, said the mother.

“The company is in the process of suing a multitude of players for this game Fortnite. Instead of Epic Games INC suing the websites providing the cheat codes, they are going after the individuals using these codes.”

It is possible that Epic could open itself up to a counter lawsuit particularly as Epic’s lawyers appeared unaware that a child as minors can’t be sued.

Epic could have gone for the cheater sites with both barrels and had the support of the gaming commuting which hates little toy-rags messing up their games by using cheats. Instead it sailed into a PR disaster in a case which could backfire.