Epic legal threat silences prolific Fortnite leaker

Christmas is almost upon us, and with it the cheer of the season - but apparently someone didn't get the memo, as one of the biggest Fortnite leakers has suddenly shut down following a legal threat from Epic. Bah humbug.

Last night FNBRLeaks posted a statement on TwitLonger claiming it had been told to close its social media accounts after being contacted by the company. "Due to the request of an Epic Games Attorney who I'm not going to disclose, my Twitter, Discord, YouTube, Instagram and Github must be deleted, or else they will take action," site owner Preston wrote. "Thank you all for the support and followers over my seven month span of the FNBRLeaks Twitter."

FNBRLeaks staff member Scenario posted an image on Discord which appears to be the cease-and-desist letter Preston received. The letter argues Preston "spoiled the game for millions of of people who play and/or watch Fortnite, and negatively impact[ed] those who work hard to create and update Fortnite. The fact that he is a teenager makes this no less true".

The cease-and-desist claims Preston misappropriated confidential information, violated the Copyright Act, and broke the "terms of his agreements with Epic". It also demands Preston delete his social media accounts and remove "any unauthorised Epic-related content".

At the time of writing, the site appears to have shut its Twitter account and Discord server, although its Instagram page is still viewable.

Those of you familiar with the Fortnite leaking scene will know FNBRLeaks as the go-to place for early insights on the game. The site, which is still live, posts leaks obtained from datamining the files added in each Fortnite patch - things such as upcoming items and skins. Four months ago it claimed to have found an all-new way to discover items in Fortnite's shop - something which allowed it to regularly post skins before their official release. At the time of closure, FNBRLeaks had 243,000 followers on Twitter, making it one of the most well-known Fortnite leak outlets on the web.

This appears to be the strongest action taken yet by Epic to discourage Fortnite players from leaking game content. Back in August, FNBRLeaks and other dataminers reported that their Fortnite accounts were banned due to "fraud" and "misconduct", but this did not stop the leakers from continuing to datamine information. By going after FNBRLeaks' social media accounts, Epic is probably hoping to limit the circulation of the leaked information, and warn others away from posting datamined content.

On a personal level, it seems a shame FNBRLeaks was forced to shut: if anything, the account hyped me up for further Fortnite developments, and the tweets themselves were incredibly wholesome. I guess that, like Leaky Lake, all good things must come to an end.