Skip to main content

Epic Games sues ‘Fortnite’ YouTuber creators over cheating software

Fortnite Fly Explosives Guide
Epic Games takes cheating in Fortnite very seriously. If you’re caught breaking the rules in the battle royale shooter, you can expect to be banned, but you could also find yourself with legal troubles. A few YouTuber creators found that out the hard way, as Epic Games is suing them for promoting hacking software in their videos.

According to a legal filing obtained by TorrentFreak, Epic Games is suing YouTuber users Colton Conter and Brandon Lucas for allegedly “injecting unauthorized cheat software” into Fortnite‘s code, which alters the experience of other users and creates “unauthorized derivative works” of Fortnite.

The lawsuit also mentioned that Conter and Lucas have been uploading videos to YouTube demonstrating these hacks, thus encouraging others to do the same, and that Lucas is using a personal website to sell hacking tools and “accounts pre-loaded with hacks.” Though both Conter and Lucas have been banned from the game on their original accounts, they continue to create new ones to keep playing.

Golden Modz sued by Fortnite

Epic seeks monetary damages and legal fees in the lawsuit, as well as the forfeit of profits from Lucas’ website.

In a rundown of the facts of the case included in the legal filing, Epic Games also took the time to throw a little more shade at Conter and Lucas.

“Defendants are cheaters,” the filing said. “Nobody likes a cheater. And nobody likes playing with cheaters.”

This hasn’t stopped Lucas from uploading several videos to his channel detailing his cheating practices. The latest was posted on October 11, and Lucas openly admitted that he was using an “aimbot” tool to kill low-level players in the game. We’re not sure that this was a smart decision, given that Epic Games’ lawsuit was filed on October 10.

Lucas currently has more than 1.7 million YouTube subscribers, so Epic Games is likely concerned that his videos will lead to even more players engaging in cheating. Nearly every video he uploads includes cheating of some sort, with the majority focused on either Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto V.

Fortnite is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. The game supports cross-play on all platforms.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Fortnite is getting a Disney universe made by Epic Games
Concept art for Disney's Fortnite experience.

Epic Games is partnering with Disney to create “an all-new games and entertainment universe” that’s compatible with Fortnite.

Announced Wednesday afternoon — at the same time as it was announced that ESPN would be available as a standalone subscription in 2025 —  this partnership follows a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games by Disney. They companies now plan to work together over several years to create this experience connected to Fortnite, which Disney says will “offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.”

Read more
Fortnite is coming back to iOS, but Epic Games still isn’t happy about it
Solid Snake aiming a pistol out of a box in Fortnite.

Fortnite is set to come back to iOS in Europe sometime in 2024. This will mark the first time a natively running version of Fortnite will be available on iOS since Apple removed the game from the App Store in 2020.

Apple did so at the time because Epic tried to use its own third-party payment system, kicking off a series of legal battles in an attempt to get Apple to open up its platform more. Although those legal battles have yielded mixed results for Epic, a newly passed Digital Markets Act in the European Union is forcing Apple to do things like "allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations" and "allow their business users to promote their offer and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform."

Read more
Rock Band 4 gets its final piece of DLC next week after over 8 years of support
Key art for Rock Band 4

Harmonix revealed that the January 25 DLC tracks for Rock Band 4 will be the final new ones added to the game.

This ends a streak of more than eight years of weekly DLC for the rhythm game. Ever since Rock Band 4 was released in October 2015, new DLC songs have been made available for purchase every week, giving the game one of the most impressive live service tails in the industry. Ultimately, Harmonix says it will have released nearly 3,000 songs as DLC for Rock Band 4 after the final content drop next week, and that live service support for seasons and online play will "continue as normal" after next week.

Read more