Epic settles lawsuit against alleged Fortnite leaker who used to work for them
Plus: Fallout from Sony's 2028 disc fade-out, and the message Sony shared with partners
Epic and a former worker have agreed to a settlement over a case that saw the gaming giant accuse one of its own contractors of leaking Fortnite collaborations with Minecraft, Peak, South Park and more.
That’s according to filings by Epic to federal court in North Carolina that have been reviewed by Game File.
Lawyers for Epic told the court last Friday that they and former contractor Hayden Cohen have agreed to a judgment against Cohen and to an injunction that bars Cohen from “possessing, accessing, using, or disclosing any of Epic’s confidential or trade secret information” or helping anyone else to do so.
The proposed settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, does not mention monetary relief. Epic’s lawsuit had sought damages covering “actual loss and unjust enrichment.”
“We took legal action against the former contractor who repeatedly leaked confidential partner IP and trade secrets that they received while working with Epic,” Epic spokesperson Natalie Munoz confirmed to Game File. “We’ve asked the court to approve the stipulated injunction to ensure they cannot publish or share Epic’s confidential information again.”
Asked about Epic’s request for a monetary award, Munoz said Epic had nothing further to share.
Cohen did not reply to Game File’s requests for comment.
Epic has previously successfully sued Fortnite cheaters and scammers.
(As I was publishing this, I noticed that Law360 reported the settlement earlier this week; credit to them for being first)
Item 2: PlayStation disc fallout
Sony’s mid-week announcement that it will stop producing discs for new PlayStation games as of January 2028 has landed poorly with a large portion of the public.
It’s caused at least one critically acclaimed developer to say it discourages him from developing games for the platform.
It’s also a message that was delivered slightly differently to PlayStation’s array of development and publishing partners, as Sony made a point of explicitly saying that pre-2028 games will still be able to get discs in 2028.
Taking that last one first…
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