Popular Fortnite leaking publication FNBRLeaks has been hit with a cease and desist order from Epic Games. Now, any social media and online presences associated with FNBRLeaks have shut down rather than face legal action from the Fortnite developer.
While FNBRLeaks was not the only name in the Fortnite leak game, it was certainly one of the biggest. The account was well known for revealing new Fortnite skins, gliders, pickaxes, and any number of cosmetics ahead of time. FNBRLeaks was so popular it had amassed almost 250,000 followers on Twitter and tens of thousands of follows/members on Instagram and Discord.
The owner of FNBRLeaks did not openly discuss the content of the cease-and-desist but some members of the community claim that it included reports that the site violated the Copyright Act and broke the terms of agreement tied to Fortnite. As a result, if FNBRLeaks continued to host sites or social media accounts with unauthorized content, they would pursue legal action. The owner, a man named Preston, obliged but kept the Instagram account to post Fortnite news as it is revealed by Epic.
No doubt this is a major blow to the Fortnite leak community. It sets a precedent that Epic Games is willing to pursue legal action against any established entity that posts leaked content ahead of time. Obviously, there are still going to be those players who datamine new updates and reveal skins early, but the sites that found success because of these leaks or even made a business out of those reveals could be facing similar legal action.
While many games have dealt with a leak or two prior to a major reveal, Fortnite is rarely capable of keeping a secret. Sometimes the developer likes to tease something by way of its news bulletin, but other times it hopes to surprise. But dataminers find images or even sound files and spoil new additions like the Infinity Blade (since removed from the game).
So for Epic Games this is a move to protect the element of surprise for its Fortnite players, but for the community that devours every leak this could be the beginning of the end. We’ll see whether more casualties beyond FNBRLeaks are in the future.
Source: Fortnite US
