Epic Games has filed a statement of claim in the Quebec Superior court against former Keywords employee Lucas Johnston that accuses him of leaking Fortnite’s recently launched new map ahead of its official reveal.
This isn’t the first tester Epic Games has taken legal action against and, with damages exceeding $85,000 being sought in this particular case, public lawsuits like this likely aim to dissuade other employees from doing the same in the future.
According to details from the court document shared by Canoe, Johnston took a screenshot while testing unreleased Fortnite content and emailed that image to himself. The image appeared on a Fortnite forum weeks later and, though Johnston says he is unaware of how it ended up online, Keywords’ internal investigation claims he shared it with his frequent Fortnite teammates, leading to its eventual circulation
“As the creative projects created by the claimant require a long period of time between the start of their conception and their commercialization, confidentiality is thus, throughout the process, essential in order to offer its users innovative projects at the forefront of the video game technology industry,” explains the filing.
In a similar vein, Epic filed a lawsuit against another Fortnite tester last month for leaking information about new Fortnite Chapter 2 features and map changes before they were later revealed through an unconventional in-game event.