Game On: Fortnite creator fined $520m by FTC, but it’s a drop in the pond –

On Monday, news broke that Fortnite creator Epic Games had agreed to a $520 million settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, paying $275 million for violating a federal children’s privacy law and another $245 million refunding customers for alleged unlawful billing practices.

The federal court complaint made three allegations: one, that Epic Games violated COPPA rules by collecting personal information from children under 13 who played Fortnite without notifying parents or obtaining their consent – two, that having text and voice communications enabled by default during online games leaves minors open to harassment – and three, that Fortnite used “dark patterns” to trick users of all ages into making in-game purchases with real-life cash.

Epic Games isn’t the first company to be found in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and they certainly won’t be the last. Most online services disallow anyone under the age of 13 from making an account due to the complexity of complying with the law, which often leads kids to simply lie about their age.

Regarding the “dark patterns” – the best thing people can do is not store credit card information on their computer or game console, especially if children have access. It will be interesting to see how Epic Games goes about dispensing $245 million in refunds to customers – how will they determine who was and wasn’t duped?

While $520 million is no small sum, as of writing Epic Games is valued at $32 billion. Fortnite alone netted the publisher $5.5 billion in 2018 and $3.7 billion in 2019. Relatively speaking, it’s a drop in the pond – Epic Games will make it through this setback just fine.

The more interesting story is that the FTC also alleged that Fortnite’s “default settings harm children and teens” – essentially, text and voice communication during online matches being “on” by default exposes young players to unwanted bullying and harassment. This is surprising, because that setting is far from unique to Fortnite – it’s been the case for the vast majority of online games for decades.

And since most other game publishers don’t have half a billion dollars sitting around, this is likely to set a new precedent in the video game scene. A similar precedent was set when the vast majority of live-service games moved from the “lootbox” model to the “battle pass” model of earning in-game cosmetic items following the passage of anti-lootbox laws in Belgium and The Netherlands in 2018 – many European countries were expected to follow suit, so publishers moved away from the sales model that resembled gambling.

In my personal experience, gamers tend to say much more heinous things over text compared to voice chat. I’ve certainly heard my fair share of slurs, but as an example, I legitimately prefer to play Left 4 Dead 2 on my Xbox – where there is voice chat but no text chat – than on my computer, which has both, but a frightening quantity of the playerbase is absolutely disgusting over text.

I’ve been told to kill myself over simple mistakes on numerous occasions. Few people are gutsy enough to say it aloud, but keystrokes? No problem, evidently. Keep in mind, the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 is objectively superior to the Xbox release, which is missing the 2020 “The Last Stand” content update – but I prefer the inferior version so I can play without being harassed.

My point is this – while I will be one of the first people to rattle off statistics that prove otherwise when the claim is made that “video games cause violence,” the allegation that online games are filled with bullies is absolutely true. It’s been proven time and again that anonymity can bring out the worst in people, and online gaming is no exception.

There are many live-service games – Apex Legends, Overwatch 2 and Rocket League, to name a few – that are guilty of the same sins that Fortnite has just been fined over. The FTC simply singled out the biggest of the bunch and set a precedent, one that is likely to make waves in the online gaming scene over the next couple of years.

Riordan Zentler can be reached at riordanzentler@gmail.com.