Epic Games sued for making Fortnite too “addictive” by Canadian parents

A Quebec judge is letting parents move forward with a class-action lawsuit against Epic Games for making Fortnite too “addictive.”

Quebec Superior Court Justice Sylvain Lussier has authorized a lawsuit against Epic Games that had been originally filed in 2019 alleging that is so addictive it can cause real-world problems.

According to CTV, the parents of three children who spent thousands of dollars playing Fortnite claim that the battle royale caused their kids to suffer psychological, physical, and financial harm.

The parents say that their kids spent hundreds of dollars on V-Bucks, sometimes without their knowledge and would even have “panic attacks” over the game.

One of the kids was frequently up until 3AM playing over 7,781 hours of the game in under two years. Another is said to have played for 59,954 minutes.

Quebec judge lets parents sue Fortnite creator

The firm representing the parents, Calex, even cited addiction specialist Anita Ghadia-Smith who compared Fortnite to cocaine.

Despite the lawsuit moving forward, the judge has said that there’s “no certainty” that Fortnite is deliberately addictive.

However, as he wrote in his ruling, it “does not preclude the possibility that the game is in fact addictive and that its creator and distributor are presumed to know this.”

Epic Games will have 30 days to appeal the decision or they will be forced to defend the allegations in court.

Damages will be determined later, but the parents are seeing “restitution” for V-bucks purchases kids made when they were under 18 years old.