Yesterday we reported on an unofficial Fortnite event in the UK (in the fair city of Norwich, to be exact) and it seems that the weekend woes, bad press and refund requests aren't the last of the headaches for the organisers.
According to Eurogamer, Epic Games has taken note of the hubbub surrounding the disorganised event and is taking legal action to prevent any further events.
According to Norwich Evening News, Shaun Lord, head of the snappily named Exciting Events company responsible for 'Fortnite Live', had planned further events in both Spalding and Newark, hoping that the festival would gain traction. However, that seemed to be unlikely after yesterday's news stories, and impossible now Epic's legal eagles have decended.
“We want to keep this going because we are a family business," Lord said, "we want to do this for the kids and this is for the kids who love the game of Fortnite."
We admit to feeling just a little sorry for the organisers. Their brazen use of Fortnite assets to promote the event notwithstanding, it's a shame that their ambition outstripped their abilities to put on a decent show for fans. For all his missteps, it's hard to disagree when Lord bristles at comparisons to Fyre Festival.
“To relate to that was a bit harsh. People are entitled to their own opinion and we can’t stop that."
Unfortunately, Epic games are able to stop any future events, so if residents of Spalding and Newark want in on Battle Royale-based festival fun, they'll have to hope that Tetris 99 gets its own knock-off event in the near future.
Think Epic is missing a trick by not organising more official Fortnite events? How far would you travel to participate in a well-organised one? Drop us a line below...
[source eurogamer.net, via eveningnews24.co.uk]
Comments 57
Oh the irony is off the charts
meh, Blackout is the way better game anyways
This is brand damaging glad they are doing something about it
Personally I would much rather attend a Tetris 99 event anyways.
Cue visual of a lawyer skulking through some tall grass before another lawyer sneaks up behind them and thrusts a cease and desist letter into his hand and running off.
"we do it for the kids" is such a lousy excuse. you do it for the money. and you're damaging a brand you don't own. so good luck I guess
Lawyer: "Sir, that's blatant trademark infringement."
Event Staff: "But its for the childrens!"
L: "Uh, that doesn't matter, sir."
E: "But we're a family business!"
L: "Unless you're a family in China, we can still prosecute... Now get in the bin with those kids we sued for finding bugs in the Early Access Alpha version."
Bravo Epic Games! While it might seem "harsh" that a business has been banned from using another company's IP to make money (after causing a lot of damage to that IPs brand).. Epic Games only took action after the company in questioned showed its incompetence. Meaning they have no problem with fun in general.
"For the kids"? Why, not upset enough of them already?
So... can they just shut down anything with a pay entry with a picture of the game? I mean, somebody could hold a fundraiser and they could shut it down. A win like that could even potentially cause issues for a bunch of other games going forward.
Everything about Fortnite is so cringey. From the name “Epic” Games to the lame little dances.
@MysticGengar No. They can shut something down if it's advertised using the game's name, characters and IP. Just slapping "unofficial" in smaller writting doesn't mean you aren't using another company's trademark to sell your own shoddy experience.
Try opening up a McDonalds "unofficial" & selling Big Mucks and see how long it lasts.
As for fundraisers, Epic could have closed this event down beforehand but didn't, personally I see this as part protecting their brand, part protecting kids from disappointment. Fundraisers & charities should be fine.
Don't like my home town getting all this negative press so here's a recommendation to balance it out: If you're in Norwich check out the One Life Left gaming cafe if you want some actual, well-organised gaming events. I walked past there at the same time this Fortnite debacle was going on and they had loads of kids having an infinitely better time then the poor saps at the Showground.
Funny part is that the Tetris company would probably sue them harder.
@Ooccoo_Jr Thanks for the recommendation! I love Norwich and want to study creative writing there!
If the event went terribly then I dunno about the whole damaging the brand thing. Terrible event for a terrible game seems pretty fitting to me.
@Lionyone Yeah UEA have a big programme in creative writing I understand. Not much in the way of arcades or gaming bars up here unfortunately but check out the cafe's website. GAME also have one of their Belong gaming centre thingys but I don't know much about that.
Fortnite is the new popular game that people take cheap shots at. I never understand this kind of hate towards a successful game.
I think it's awesome that Epic is lawyering-up in regards to this unofficial event. Nintendo did the same thing to the Mario Kart Tour in Tokyo!
I can't see how they sullied the brand. Nobody thought it was an official Epic event.
But anyways I do think there should be more gaming festivals and more gaming events. It's lovely when people meetup. This event was pretty well attended for a smallish event - 2,500 - which shows the strength of interest in festivals and events. It's a lonely age. Let's enable people to make more real life friends!
@justin233 You don't like Epic Games? Whatever you do don't look at the tech that's running Yoshi's Crafted World.
@JayJ That would be something to behold!
@BumpkinRich Yes, I know about Unreal Engine and Epic Games. I’m just saying the word “epic” is fitting for Fortnite cringe levels.
Aw yea hating on a popular game is soo kewl amiright fellas?
Good on Epic. That seemed like a disaster.
I agree with a company's right to defend its products and intellectual properties being used by someone else for their own gain without permission from the company that owns it, which is why Fortnite's very existence is not cool at all
@DanteSolablood don’t slander my name like that
@dkxcalibur I think that the Mario Kart guys were also causing accidents and traffic jams, apparently they had no license for that from the Tokyo Traffic department either.
Last thing Nintendo wants is some kid growing up thinking that Mario and friends caused either an accident that sent their parent to the hospital or a traffic jam that got them fired.
@SmileMan64 I'm fairly certain that the tours still exist, so it wasn't the city that was against it, it was as you said; a liability for Nintendo. If a person drives a kart into traffic and dies, that's not something Nintendo wants to be associated with.
The same is true about this "unofficial" Fortnite Live event. If a kid got hurt, even though legally they wouldn't be responsible, it's not the publicity that they want. The same is true if it's a poorly organized event like this one turned out to be. I would bet, that there were kids and parents that left that event angry with Epic even though they had nothing to do with the event.
This bad press for fortnite and its fandom pleases me. Hopefully it’ll hasten the insufferable franchise’s demise...
A someone who has been involved in event planning this looks like inexperience. Everyone wants to have a huge festival but if you're not established then you have to start small, build attendance and get sponsorship. When you demonstrate that you can get people in one place and create a good experience you get sponsors to help pay for it all. Advertising makes the world go 'round and this looks like they were using their own capital to fund it so they didn't have enough money to create a compelling experience and they needed to sell a stupid number of tickets to make a profit off what little they could afford. This looks like a neighborhood event, not a "festival".
@Bigmuc I think you'll find that slander is verbal. I "libelled" your good name sir!
@RyanSilberman Thank you!!!! Someone else with the same opinion as me!
That blows my mind that they would try and do this using all of the official copyrighted material even if it was going to be good. You can't just do that. Lol.
I also find it humorous that so many people hate on Fortnite just because it's popular and because it's 'in' to do so.
A while ago I wanted to see what the fuss was about for myself, download it and actually tried it. I wasnt a huge fan at first because it wasn't my thing but after playing with friends I found it to be quite fun after all.
In the end, if you have actually given it a fair chance and don't like it, that's fair! ...Like me and pokemon or Smash Bros for example. But whether it's Fortnite or anything else, slamming others for liking anything is pointless.
@ALinkttPresent Is this in reference to the dances?
@justin233 Ah! You see the word as in 'whoaa that's epic dude!'..
It's better that Epic MegaGames.
@BumpkinRich Yes - I'm saying the use of the word and pre-teens doing stupid dances and yelling at eachother online is fitting.
@dkxcalibur I mean, I haven't played Fortnite, so it isn't like I could form a valid opinion yet.
But people acting like its popularity is beneath them are only displaying just how pointlessly petty they like to be. That goes for every booming title, unfortunately, and people have a habit of not wanting to step out of their comfort zone.
@invictus4000 I'm with you. I'm part of a few groups and some of them really like to hate on Fortnite - to the point where people were getting bans for being so abusive about people posting questions about Fortnite.
I find it especially odd here in a Nintendo based site because I find that Nintendo games are often accused of being 'for kids'.
If you don't like a game and it's not harming anyone why comment?
@Yorumi probably doing it so no one else tries it. They have a right to protect their brand even if there are people like us who don’t value it.
@Mattbunting Brand damaging fortnite is a good thing though 😉
@invictus4000 I am not a fan because the two times I have attempted playing it the experience was horrible. Both times I was teamed up with randoms that spent the entire time talking trash about me and complaining that I didn't know what I was doing. So it was deleted and I moved on.
@RyanSilberman Well said!
@Darknyht
1. Couldn't you mute them?
2. Try the normal Battle Royal mode where you don't use teams.
@SmaMan Uh...I'm out of the loop. What's this about early access issues?
Other than the Unreal Engine, what has Epic contributed to gaming lately?
@Darknyht I wouldn't recommend playing with randoms, play alone or with people you know. And that applies to a lot of video games not just this one haha.
If you're gonna sue someone for sullying your reputation, you'd have to sue the entire internet, no?
This is so petty. So very petty. Seems their popularity has gone to their head.
I suppose they have some ground to stand on, if the event was organized for profit - clearly you can't use someone else's IP without permission, for profit. But I thought this was just a fan gathering that got in over their heads.
"Sullying the brand"? Sounds like they should be sueing Apex Legends too. Don't worry, though, I'm sure that's coming.
At least the Dashcon people realized that directly mentioning Tumblr in their con's name wasn't a good idea.
They can do it without infringing trademarks, but still be obvious what they are basing the event on. Start with the name- "The Fort & Knight Royal Battle." Of course we all know you can use all the dances freely since none of them belong to Epic Games- just record people doing them rather than using screens from Fortnite. Just a couple of examples.
@Heavyarms55 It was what appears to be a one man company who charges a £20 fee to go into a field. Most of the UK press covered it without making it clear this was an unofficial event so its clear why Epic want to make sure it does not happen again.
@BumpkinRich Thats my read too, kind of reminds me of the Disney, EA situation when Battlefront 2 micro-transactions were the talk of the town and the Disney CEO had to have a word with his EA counterpart, it wasn't because Disney give a [removed] about loot-boxes, because they don't, they just cannot have the Star Wars brand attached to any negative press. The IP is the most important thing. The reason Epic have done this is due to how negatively the event was received, which in turn potentially damages the Fortnite IP.
I would bet money that if this event had been a resounding success, praised by attendees, Epic would not be taking this step. In fact they would likely have offered official support to the promotors for future events. Epic seem like they have a better track record of positively engaging with the community than a lot of the other big devs / publishers
@Paddle1 Yeah, I go back to my original comment. I shouldn't need to find a fansite to get instructions on how to set the game up to play solo. Because until you mentioned it, I saw nothing that would lead someone to believe it is an option.
@Slapsillium Please mind your language!
@Octane Apologies, I predominantly post on the EG boards where the language is considerably more "colourful" and it looks to have spilled over. Will keep it clean in future!
@Slapsillium No worries, thanks for understanding!
Where do I go to read about the incompetences!
@dkxcalibur
Based on this mentality Justin Bieber is one of the best artists...sure it's easy to hate something that's popular, but mediocre things that are popular are the easiest targets.
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