Epic Sues Fortnite QA Tester Who Leaked Battle Royale Season 4 Secrets

According to Polygon, Epic Games sued Thomas Hannah, a quality assurance contractor, on May 7 for leaking spoilers for Fortnite: season four. Through a third party, Hannah spread information about where Fortnite’s meteor would hit, an action in direct violation of his non-disclosure agreement.

Prior to the leak, most Fortnite theorists believed they had decoded a secret message that hinted Titled Towers would be the crash zone of the meteor. The leak debunked this prediction, and informed players that Dusty Depot was the actual target. Epic is accusing Hannah of deliberately working with a third party to leak this info.

Hannah’s defense against the accusations is that he did not purposely leak the target location. According to him, he was bombarded by “a series of questions and guesses regarding where the meteor would hit,” at the end of Fortnite: Battle Royale season three. Hannah then shared the information in a private conversation, assuming it would remain confidential. It did not, and the spoilers were published to a subreddit. Both the post and the account that created it have since been deleted, but the internet is forever and this was no exception.

Epic claims the damages this leak has done cannot be fixed with money, as the company “has suffered and is continuing to suffer irreparable injury.” The company is seeking punitive damages under both state and federal trade secret laws.

This isn’t Epic’s first rodeo through the legal ringer. PUBG Corp, the creators behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, filed copyright claims against Epic and Fortnite last year. That lawsuit was later dropped.

Fortnite: Battle Royale season five starts July 12. The game is available on Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.