As if it needed reiterating, Fortnite Chapter 2‘s launch earlier this month proved the battle royale’s monumental popularity yet again.
Following a spate of teasers alluding to ‘The End’ of Fortnite at Season X’s conclusion, Epic Games delivered on that promise by having Battle Island be devoured by a black hole. With only the featureless void of space left behind, the developer used the downtime provided by its masterful marketing campaign to finalize plans for the game’s glorious rebirth. Less than 48 hours later, service was restored, though in the original map’s stead stood Apollo Island.
Boasting a raft of new gameplay features such as fishing and swimming as well as multiple mechanical improvements, Epic managed the miraculous feat of delivering an update that hadn’t already been preemptively pulled apart by leaks and data miners, though some fans, it seems, were spoiled ahead of time.
As per a lawsuit filed earlier this week in North Carolina (thanks, Polygon), Epic Games has begun legal proceedings against one Ronald Sykes for allegedly prematurely leaking Chapter 2 ahead of its official launch. The lawsuit states that Sykes, a beta tester who played the upcoming content around late September, proceeded to use their now-deleted Twitter profile to leak various elements of the secretive update despite having signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Sykes is accused of specifically leaking an image of Apollo Island as well as revealing the addition of swimming in Chapter 2, for which Epic is seeking “maximum damages” from the defendant for their breach of contract. Not good.
Unlike the sea of public-facing data miners that make knowing Fortnite‘s unrevealed secrets their business, Sykes being directly employed by Epic as well as signing an NDA makes a world of legal difference, and I’d be surprised if the case isn’t closed in the developer’s favor.
We’ll have to wait and see how that develops but in lighter news, Fortnite Chapter 2’s latest update, patch 11.10, went live earlier today, bringing with it a wealth of new Halloween-themed goodies. See here for all the details.
