Epic Games lawsuit targets Fortnite creators who used bots to fake engagement

Fortnite has evolved from a battle royale game to a community platform. Epic Games, its developers, have encouraged fans to create Creative Islands, spaces where, using the Unreal Editor, they can create small games and, following a similar model on other content creation platforms, monetize and receive money. Unfortunately, as with other platforms, there are users who inflate their user numbers to boost their stats, but Epic Games is seeking legal action.

The study will seek to sue two developers, Idris Nahdi and Ayob Nasser, who used bots to make Epic Games believe that their maps were receiving more traffic than expected. According to the complaint filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the duo managed to create multiple accounts, about 20,000 bots, so that they could artificially interact with their creations. These bots attracted real players to enter their maps, but according to Epic, between 88 and 99% of the engagement was not real. The two purportedly made tens of thousands of dollars through this scheme.

“Before they got caught, Defendants were paid tens of thousands of dollars in unearned payments from Epic that would otherwise have been paid out to other developers who earned genuine engagement from real Fortnite players,” lawyers wrote in the complaint. “Epic has also spent substantial resources investigating Defendants’ conduct and working to implement safeguards against unearned payments.”

How do you make money in Fortnite with creative islands?

Fortnite’s user-generated content creators earn money through engagement-based payouts, which are funded by 40% of the game’s Item Shop revenue and other real-money transactions. This pool is distributed according to metrics such as player popularity and retention, including active players, playtime, and returning users. However, the exact formula remains undisclosed. Although Epic Games plans to allow creators to sell items directly within their Islands to generate additional income, for now, engagement remains the sole source of creator revenue.

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