This week, the gaming world is abuzz with a major scandal involving Epic Games and their smash hit Fortnite.
According to reports it looks like Epic will have to pay $520 million in fines due to charges brought forth by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly deceiving players – but just how did they manage it? Dive into this news story now for all of your burning questions about FTC’s accusation against one of the biggest game developers around!
Contents of the video:
00:00 Intro
00:17 How was Epic Games tricking Fortnite players?
01:36 How did the company respond to the charges?
The Federal Trade Commission, or the FTC, charged Epic Games with improperly gathering the personal information of children and employing deceptive methods to encourage unintended in-game purchases.
First off, Epic Games was gathering private data on Fortnite gamers under the age of 13 without their knowledge or permission.
Second, the game automatically enabled live voice and text chats while pairing kids and teenagers with adult strangers to play Fortnite. Children were subjected to harassment as a result.
Third, the FTC claims that players may be charged when attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by clicking a nearby button when merely attempting to preview an item. Unauthorized charges of millions of dollars resulted from this.
What kind of response did Epic Games give? Epic Games reportedly said in a statement to The Washington Post that no developer designs a game with the purpose of ending up here. We agreed to this agreement because we want Epic to lead the way in consumer protection and give our gamers the finest possible experience. Epic Games will cover the cost. Additionally, it pledged to treat players’ privacy carefully. We can only hope that the business won’t ever again tamper with consumer protection regulations.
Read more tech and cybersercrity news at www.gethitch.com
