Epic Games will pay out a whopping $520 million in total settlement money. Federal Trade Commission Investigation Violates Children’s Privacy, Scams Some Players buy things fortnite what they don’t want.JFTC announced on monday This is the largest penalty ever assessed in the regulator’s history. Epic Games responded by writing, “No developer builds a game with the intention of ending up here.”
So what exactly did Epic Games make? I am accusing you of making money. The first of two settlements announced Monday concerns the collection of personal information. fortnite Players under the age of 13, and an in-game setting to turn on voice and text chat by default. It was a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Regulation, fined $275 million, and Epic promised to change. fortnitedefault setting.
The second settlement is against “using dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases.” Specifically, Epic has been accused of accidentally making it easier to purchase skins during previews and making it harder for players to find refund options when they want to cancel a transaction. The FTC also says Epic may ban those accounts once the charges are reversed, leaving players barred from previously paid content. As a result, Epic will pay $245 million to the foundation to compensate players affected by unintended purchases.
I know what you’re thinking: this sounds like something every day More than just online games fortniteSure enough, Epic Games wrote: Blog post of the day We believe this is an inflection point in the evolution of regulatory standards for online games. “The old status quo of in-game commerce and privacy is changing and will require many developers to rethink their practices,” the company wrote. While we share basic principles of privacy, the practices referenced in FTC complaints are: fortnite works. ”
Here’s a quick list of some tactics that Epic said were intentionally unexploitative but will now change.
- Automatic saving of payment data
- one button purchase
- Disabling Accounts Seeking Refunds for Fraudulent Purchases
- Lack of self-service refunds
- No usage restrictions for players under the age of 13
These landmark settlements show that the FTC isn’t afraid to fight big tech, especially on the gaming side.commission is now suing block Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, Xbox maker call of duty Future console monopoly could hurt competition. In response, Microsoft promised everything under the sun. Eliminate the FTCfrom putting call of duty Game Pass’s rival service, PS Plus, allowed workers to form unions without fighting.
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These are big mistakes that Epic Games can tolerate. fortnite earned $9 billion It’s profitable in just the first two years. But perhaps this should serve as a wake-up call for other game companies to start taking these rules more seriously. In online games, it’s been a joke for years when kids throw slurs into Voice’s chat or parents get mad at Credit Card charges. FIFA pack and fortnite dance. According to the FTC, it was both true and illegal. We’ll see how much that changes following this settlement.
