A former employee of Epic Games is reportedly being sued by the company for leaking details surrounding Fortnite's fourth season, sharing information on its themes and plot points before its official release.
As the game's third season was coming to a close, excitement began to rise amongst players who had noticed meteors falling from the sky in-game. The meteors turned out to be a tease from Epic, subtly hinting towards the destruction of Dusty Depot and the superhero themes which would become available for characters. Days before the season officially started, however, these details were leaked online by a man named Adam DiMarco, and Epic is claiming that he received this information through one of its own employees.
According to the suit (thanks IGN), Epic says that ex-quality assurance tester Thomas Hannah is guilty of breaching a non-disclosure agreement, claiming that he had access to confidential information through private meetings regarding upcoming seasons which was ultimately shared with DiMarco. The information is said to have been shared three weeks after Hannah's last day with the company.
Hannah has filed a defence to this suit, acknowledging the breaking of an agreement despite also stating he had no control over DiMarco's eventual actions. It states that DiMarco made deductions based on Hannah’s vague responses, rather than Hannah outwardly presenting complete information.
As always, legal cases such as this can take a very long time to reach any conclusion so we're unlikely to hear any outcomes for a while. In the meantime, with Fortnite's fifth season now just around the corner, let's hope no-one else gets themselves into trouble. If you're interested, you can read through Epic's suit here, as well as the full defence.
[source uk.ign.com]
Comments 28
NintendoLife is now a Fortnite news site it seems
@Yhdekskymmenen is just one article....
Yeah, this is why testers are advised to do a total zip – including not mentioning what is tested. Otherwise you're out of the industry and have a hefty fine to pay as well.
Leaking it after termination is not safe either. The NDA I signed as a tester last from 1 to 5 years after contract termination.
@Yhdekskymmenen News about a game on a Nintendo console on a Nintendo-dedicated website? Egads!
As someone who did QA and helped with translations about a decade ago at a certain company in Frankfurt am Main, this is what you get when you breach NDA...
These aren't small fry companies and it doesn't matter if you said it or insinuated enough for DiMarco to figure out the information, you said things you shouldn't.
On the other hand I do understand the urge to tell someone. I remember knowing the title of a certain cute pink ball game (and soms other stuff) way before it got announced and I had to really hold my tongue not to tell my best friend at the time.
Rather know when the career tab is coming ffs!!!!
The Hardest things to avoid for human being is.... Temptation.
If he really did it, I hope they nail him to the wall for ruining my surprises.
See that is why you don’t leak any info. The I didn’t know what the person l told would do defense doesn’t hold water.
@SmaggTheSmug Unless you move to another country lol, it is the only way!
It is kind of scummy to do though, I feel like games in general are no secretive enough. We all know way too much about them before they come out. I know it is better for the consumer in the long run but it ruins the mystery games once had knowing what the game is about.
@SmaggTheSmug Yup. I'm not sure where this whole "I'm gonna tell-all" mindset comes from. If some of our counselors terminate employment after the agency paid for their license fees, they can't use the license for private practice for a specific amount of time. Just like I can't go create SQL coded reports identical to what I'm building now, unless there's clear differentiation.
@Yhdekskymmenen This just in, gamers are reading about gaming news on gaming websites. Sound outrageous? We'll have more at 11.
@NewAdvent What's more interesting is all these folks who leak never seem to connect that there are ways to find anything in an electronics-focused industry. I'm in healthcare, and the advent of medical records was a wonderful thing. Employees all pointing the finger about who changed a record? Drop an SQL query, game day bucket went boom!!
@Djgoa This is what I want too.
What's this? Some nobody leaked information on the biggest game on the planet to get his 15 seconds of fame?
SHOCKING!
@Yorumi Why shouldn't they? I don't know about the kids' case, but I think this is the right thing to do. What is the point of NDA otherwise? This person was not working for them anymore, firing them was not even an option. You would rather them not being punished at all? I do mind spoilers, and if no action is taken towards leakers, we just go deeper into the rabbit hole of leaking being "ok"
Ugh... I'm not interested in Fortnite (though I DID download it for some reason), but the whole idea of people leaking things to the internet so that nerds with a lot of free time and not a lot of patience can... read about things they'll get later but still have to wait for them (I guess?) is infuriating. Good for you, Epic-people.
Well, they have every right. Though I'm not sure they need the money...
@Yorumi ok I see your point, although the example you gave about Ridley does not make it sound any better - that would have been sad. I always prefer official announcements from companies themselves, like Nintendo Directs for example. Ruining those nice surprises is not nice in my opinion Also, I think letting any leak slide is worse for this whole leaking issue nowadays. That's why personally I feel like even this kind of leaking should be punished in some way.
Overall I don't like spoilers, and sometimes feel even companies give too much info about games (or movies) beforehand, although better that way than leaked. That's why I rarely watch trailers for movies I want to see.
What plot? You mean this shooty bang bang game about a bunch of people who jump out of a flying bus and later kill each other has a PLOT?
I mean, I guess gradual changes to the one map you get to play on are a neat innovation to this increasingly stale genre but this seems like another ridiculous suit from the same company that sued people for finding bugs in their Early Access beta of the game... which is supposed to be the point, right? (Back in my day you used to pay people to do that....)
@Yorumi I think the problem is sadly we live in a "it's only wrong if you get caught" society now, and most people think they won't get caught so they do anything they want that pleases them expressly because the fear of punishment is all they look for to establish right from wrong now.
So the response to that, is to peruse all punishment. In an honest society it would be a bit much. Bet we no longer have an honest society, or anything closely resembling it. Everyone looks to take a yard from an inch and has established it's their right to do so unless they're made to be too frightened to try.
Act 2 features razor wire and machine gun nests.
@Yhdekskymmenen I mean, Fortnite coming to a Nintendo console is about the biggest news for Nintendo since.... Breath of the Wild?
Fortnite has a plot?
Anyway, if the guy signed a non-disclosure agreement and broke it, of course he would get sued. If you could sign those agreements and break them without consequence, then the agreements wouldn't be worth the paper they are printed on.
"acknowledging the breaking of an agreement despite also stating he had no control over DiMarco's eventual actions."
lol what a bonehead. "I didn't know he was gonna tell anyone, I told him to keep it a secret!!11" That's not how NDAs work.
Hope that will teach them leakers, I like my surprises, I demand my rights to be surprised.
@WiX @Yorumi the funny part is that Ridley was apparently actually leaked before the e3 presentation, along with Daisy, the name, and everything. But nobody believed the leaker.
Well whatever, season 4 was lackluster anyways.They should have leveled Tilted but they didn't--so the big surprise was bunk.
@Yosheel And that is how it should be! If NintendoLife had reported on that, the Nintendo Direct wouldn't have been that cool for me. And no, I don't think that would be Nintendo's fault, I just like to be surprised by the actual source, rather than something being blurted away too early by a nobody and then a respectable news site I follow, such as NintendoLife... Not reporting on leaks should be the basic rule in my opinion - or at the very least if people really want leaks, those should be very clearly marked and not spoiled in the headlines, thumbnails etc.
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