Epic Is Suing Over The Failed Fortnite Festival [Update]

The organiser of an ill-fated Fortnite festival is to be sued by the game's publisher, Epic. Fortnite Live took place over the weekend in the UK city of Norwich, but was met with a universally negative reception from attendees. [Update: The organiser has now stated it's had to "cease all trading activities immediately" and will apparently cancel previously planned Fortnite Live events.]

Tickets cost between £12 and £32 per person, which granted fans access to understaffed, generic, and poor-quality attractions such as a climbing wall and archery practice. Fortnite branding, including character likenesses, was used all over the event, despite none of that intellectual property being licensed for use by organiser Exciting Events. As a result, Epic has stated it will sue the event organiser.

"The quality of our player experience is incredibly important to us, whether it's inside the game or at official public events like last year's Fortnite Pro-Am," an Epic Games spokesperson told Eurogamer. "Epic Games was not in any way associated with the event that took place in Norwich and we've issued a claim against the organisers in the High Court of London."

Attendees complained of long queues and of very few of the activities having anything to do with Fortnite. The free-to-play game itself was playable at the event--once you paid for the privilege and queued to get in.

"It should have been a fun day out, but the whole event was a shambles. My kids spent most of the day in queues," one woman told the Guardian. "Fortnite is all about hunting people down and killing them--I felt like doing that to the people who organised it."

Exciting Events was offering refunds to people who requested their money back on the day and has since said it will aim to do better for next year's event. After Epic's legal action, Fortnite Live 2020 appears an unlikely prospect.

In other news, Fortnite's latest 7.40 update went live just recently. The patch introduces two new limited-time modes and some new items, including a limited-time Driftboard.