Epic Games Uses Private Investigators To Hunt Down Cheaters

If there's one story more prominent in the gaming press these days than the success of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, its the rampant cheating in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. Despite banning over a million (paid) accounts, PUBG continues to face an onslaught of cheaters and hackers, primarily originating in The People's Republic of China.

Fortunately for Epic Games, their Battle Royale title, Fortnite, mainly caters to a Western playerbase. That means the cheaters in Fortnite tend to reside in parts of the world where copyright laws are enforced. And Epic Games does not shy away from using the law to stop cheaters.

Epic Games has sued several cheaters, including minors, to stop them from cheating. The cases have been settled with undisclosed terms, but I'm sure any kid being sued by a large company would think twice before making the same mistake again.

Now we've learned that Epic Games is really serious about holding cheaters accountable. The studio has gone so far as to hire private investigators to track down cheaters so that they could be served court papers. In one case, a defendant know as B.B was tracked down by Klatt Investigations after Epic Games failed to locate the suspected cheater themselves.

The suspect in question turned out to be a minor, so both the Defendant and the defendants mother were served. In another case, Epic Games hired S&H Investigative Services to hunt down another minor. Often defendants fail to respond in these cases. That carries the risk a default judgement for copyright infringement.

The zeal of Epic Games legal team comes as a shock to us, but it is certainly working. While PUBG is plagued by cheaters, Fortnite remains far more stable and cheater-free.

Further Reading: Torrent Freak on Private Investigators, Epic Games Settles First Copyright Case