News Software Technology

Fortnite is facing a class-action lawsuit as it is ‘addictive’ and failed to inform users about it

More than 250+ million players are hooked on to Epic Games’ Fortnite, the epic battle royale game which has grown immensely just after its launch last year. Fortnite is no doubt an addictive game thanks to its battle royale genre and how it matches you with 99 other players that fight with you and only the last man standing wins. Turns out Fortnite has just received a class action lawsuit against this very property of being addictive. The grounds of this lawsuit is that Epic failed to inform users that the game can be addictive.

According to USA Today, a Montreal-based law firm Calex Legal had filed a lawsuit at a class-action status where it was alleged that Fortnite is addictive and that it hired psychologists and statisticians among other people to work on the game to make it extremely addictive to reap off benefits from it.

The plaintiffs are identified by their initials, JZ and FN, who alleged that their 15 and 10-year-old kids are playing this game and have glued to it.

Filed in French, the lawsuit states that the addictive game uses psychology to make players addicted to it. While playing the game, it induces the brain to release pleasure hormone called dopamine which makes players happy and they continue playing the game at a stretch.

Although the game was released as a free-to-play on consoles, it has a tonne of options to purchase with real money which is used to buy virtual V-Bucks which in turn the players can spend to buy emotes, customs, and other stuff within the game. This has sparked a row of speculations as well.

According to the lawsuit, the game uses the same method as slot machines which are addictive as well and are made to manipulate players into spending more in the hopes of getting more which is not how the game works since it has a very low probability that you will win something from a slot machine after entering a coin and pulling the lever.

Talking about the lawsuit, publisher Epic Games has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit. When contacted, Epic Games stated that it doesn’t comment on any ongoing litigations. 

About the author

Bo Walkden

Senior writer & Rumors Analyst, Bo is a postgraduate in biotechnology and has an immense interest in following technology developments. Quiet by nature, he is an avid Lacrosse player. He is responsible for handling the office staff writers and providing them with the latest updates happenings in the world of technology.
Email:[email protected]

Add Comment

Click here to post a comment