An Epic Games contractor may have been involved in the Fortnite black market

Some dastardly deeds happened behind the scenes.

A few piles of V-Buck coins with "Fortnite" written above them
Image via Epic Games

Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, is currently investigating some nefarious dealings behind the scenes after FN News posted a tweet accusing a former contractor of generating codes and selling them on the black market.

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“A former Russian Epic employee, generated Minty pickaxe codes to sell them on the black market. He also leaked payouts from Creator maps, boosted his own friends maps in discovery, & tried to edit existing maps in discovery, hoping to remove them for good,” the tweet from FN News reads.

Epic Games Newsroom responded to the tweet, saying that they blocked the contractor’s access to Epic’s systems while they investigate the claims. They’ve removed several videos on the topic to take down sensitive information.

The contractor is accused of generating codes for in-game items and selling them behind the scenes, manipulating content creator payouts, using developer-only tools to promote maps their friends made, and more.

Aside from the response from Epic on Twitter, there’s been no news about what will happen to the contractor. There could be resulting legal action, which is why Epic is taking its time to fully respond to the situation.

Epic is certainly no stranger to lawsuits either, after being sued multiple times for using dances from other creators and the massive lawsuit against Apple because of practices related to the iOS App Store. If there is legal action to be had for what this creator did, Epic will surely file suit, which is why players and fans who want to know what Epic is doing about the situation will likely need to wait quite a while before any detailed information is released.

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Image of Jessica Scharnagle
Jessica Scharnagle
Jessica has been an esports and gaming journalist for just over five years. She also teaches esports journalism at Rowan University. Follow her for all things gaming, @JessScharnagle on Twitter.