Last week, Epic Games won its lawsuit against a man accused of selling Fortnite cheats, GameSpot reports.
According to documents filed to the Federal Court of Australia on May 2 and acquired by Kotaku, defendant Brandon Despotakis was found to have infringed on Epic Games’ copyright and violated both Fortnite’s end user license agreement and its terms of service.
Despotakis, known online as BlazeFN, was taken to court by Epic Games in April 2021 for selling aimbots designed to help players cheat in Fortnite matches as well as accounts loaded with skins and V-Bucks, the battle royale’s proprietary currency. At the time, a judge in the New South Wales district court ordered Despotakis to stop selling the contentious Fortnite software and froze assets totaling up to $182,483.44 AUD (or around $126,625.26 USD).
In addition to taking down his online store and doing everything in his power to make the cheats “permanently inoperable” as part of this recent settlement, Despotakis was also ordered to pay damages to the Fortnite developer.
Epic Games would not disclose the amount of these damages when contacted by Kotaku. They explained that the money will be donated to Child’s Play, a charity that provides hospitals and domestic violence shelters with video games and other toys.
“Selling compromised player accounts and cheat technologies puts people’s information at risk and ruins the experience for people who are playing fairly,” an Epic Games rep told Kotaku. “We take the illegal sale of these items seriously and we’ll pursue all available options to make sure our games remain fun, fair and never pay-to-win.”
The online store through which Despotakis peddled his wares has since been taken down, along with the YouTube and TikTok accounts he used to advertise. He also released a statement addressing the situation via Twitlonger.
“I’d like to apologize to the Fortnite community,” Despotakis wrote. “What I did was illegal and gave players an unfair advantage over other people who play by the rules. I won’t do this ever again. Please do not contact me about Fortnite cheats or Fortnite player accounts.”
