With Fortnite, fans can also earn a lot of money by working directly for Epic Games, aside from Battle Royale. Two fans tried exactly that, but they wanted to trick the developers – now they have been caught.
How can you earn money with Fortnite? Those who actively participate in the Island Creator Program can earn money with Fortnite through the UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite). Players can then create maps for Creative Mode, which can then be tested and played for free by fans.
The higher the community’s interaction rate with the created content is, the larger your earned profit will be, as Epic Games pays the creators of these maps a commission.
However, two players smelled a goldmine behind the Island Creator Program, as they tried to deceive Epic Games with a trick to gain access to the commissions. The developers caught on to the fraudsters, and now they are facing legal consequences.
Fans fake the popularity of their maps with bots
How did the fans try to deceive Epic Games? With bots. The commission is only paid out when your maps are popular and visited and played by many fans from the community. Players Idris Nahdi and Ayob Nasser, according to the news site Polygon, exploited the system.
They created some maps and over 20,000 bots to fake the necessary popularity for a payout. According to Epic Games, the two fraudsters managed to earn thousands of dollars until the developers caught on to them.
Epic Games stopped the payouts and then demanded that the culprits “destroy all copies of Fortnite in their possession.” The two fans ignored that, which was partly a reason why Epic Games escalated the issue legally.
Now they face legal consequences in court. Epic Games wants to make an example to protect its honest developers and ensure that the Creator Program can continue to exist. They are now demanding the returned money from the fraudsters, as well as a Fortnite ban for them and their descendants.
Epic Games has little tolerance for cheaters or fraudsters, and when it comes to tough measures, they even consider legal actions to put a stop to them. One case involved a 14-year-old boy who proudly uploaded his cheats on YouTube. The developers did not find that funny at all: Fortnite ends legendary lawsuit against 14-year-old cheater defended by mom
