Epic Games reportedly cracks down on Fortnite leaks

Almost all Fortnite news comes to the fan base early, thought to be the work of the global web of intrigued data miners digging through the game’s files in order to find clues about future updates. However, Epic has reportedly identified an employee responsible for leaking many of the recent updates to the well known Fortnite leaker @HYPEX.

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Where do these Fortnite leaks come from?

RIP to an Epic Games employee soon 💀 Man Is about to be sued even more than the chapter 2 map leaker

— Happy Power (@HappyPower) July 4, 2020

When it comes to gaining new information about Fortnite, nothing beats having someone on the inside. Sure, players can pour over lines and lines of code hidden within updates and data files, but even if the information is there it can be hard to know where to look and what it even means. That’s where having someone on the inside, someone who can pinpoint exactly what’s new and what it means, can give leakers an edge in revealing this information to the community.

Fortnite community member @HappyPower announced that Epic had found a Fortnite leaker within their own ranks and was preparing the legal case needed to take them to court over this. So far, nothing is yet known about the alleged leaker, except that they supposedly have a connection to @HYPEX. The most critical thing allegedly provided to @HYPEX was the AES key which is used to decrypt encrypted data within Fortnite.

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What does this mean for the future of Fortnite updates?

What this will ultimately result in is that players will simply get information about their game at a later date, a date more completely controlled by the Fortnite developers. Apparently, this leaker was responsible for providing information about future skin releases, updates, weapon releases, dances, and much more.

If action is ultimately taken, Epic will reclaim much of the control which they had lost over the game. This could make their releases pack a bigger punch for players who will no longer know about secret skins and surprise releases months in advance. However, this will also exacerbate the problem of the Fortnite community needing to discover information tied to game updates themselves so long as Epic refuses to publish adequate patch notes.