Epic Games Lawsuit Over Fortnite Addiction: Children Stayed Up All Night For Playing it

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Epic Games Lawsuit Over Fortnite Addiction: A group of Canadian parents is suing US-based Epic Games over its popular Fortnite game franchise, alleging that it turns kids become compulsive gamers who neglect their basic needs like eating, sleeping, and taking a shower.

According to BBC News, a judge on the Canadian Supreme Court has officially approved the Quebec parents’ complaint against Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. They assert that their players are “severely dependent” on the first-person shooter game, which has more than 80 million users worldwide.

The Canadian judge declared earlier this week that the action was not “frivolous or clearly ill-founded.” The court concludes that there is a significant argument to be made, one that is sufficiently and supported explicitly by claims, regarding the existence of risks or dangers associated with using Fortnite. The law company that filed the lawsuit said that Epic Games has “essentially the same” legal obligations as a tobacco maker.

Even though the lawsuit may go forward, the Canadian judge stated that he did not accept the parents’ assertions that Epic Games created Fortnite purposefully addicting.

The parents’ argument that Epic Games purposefully designed Fortnite addict was rejected by the court. The likelihood that the game is indeed addictive and that its creator and distributor are presumptively aware of it is not excluded, he continued.

Epic Games Lawsuit Over Fortnite Addiction

In a statement acquired by BBC, Epic Games refuted the legality of the lawsuit. Parental consent is required before any transactions are made, according to the business, and parents may receive playtime reports that measure how much time their child plays each week.

“We intend to challenge this in court. The evidence, in our opinion, will demonstrate that this case lacks merit. Parents have filed a class-action lawsuit against Epic Games, alleging that the company knew Fortnite would be highly addictive (thanks, TechRadar).

Since quite a few years ago, concerns about the game’s level of addiction have been a major topic of discussion. Legal representatives argue that Epic Games engaged psychologists to help make the game as addictive as possible and failed to notify players of these impacts when the complaint was first filed in 2019. Since then, the matter has been under review and is now considered deserving of approval.

Two parents who have grown increasingly concerned about the online shooter’s impact on their children — one of whom has reportedly racked up 7,700 hours in the game over the previous two years — claim that the game’s design is “extremely, very addicting.”

Given this situation, Natalie Munoz, a representative for Epic Games, said the business “plans to challenge this in court,” citing previous attempts to provide “industry-leading” parental controls and screen time statistics.

The allegations filed against the company point to the game’s design as the cause of the players’ poor sleep and diet, among other things, but Munoz has said that “the lawsuit is meritless” and Epic reportedly has the data to back him up.

Although the case’s official commencement date has not yet been determined, we anticipate that the studio will seek to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

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