Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says recently announced Cryptocurrency called Fortnite Token (opens in a new tab) is “a scam” and warned that the company was preparing legal action to shut it down. However, Fortnite Token creators withdrew, describing it as a fan-made project “with no specified owner or company structure behind it.”
The Fortnite Token first appeared in late 2021, and there was no doubt about its attempt to tie in with Epic’s mega-hit battle royale:
Despite the big, shiny “F”, Fortnite Token has maintained a relatively low-key presence to this day, with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney apparently catching an invitation on May 29 to “start trading.” to hit your NFT creations on nftoken site and for sale on OpenSea, “and answered honestly”It’s a scam (opens in a new tab). “
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But instead of pulling the plug and walking towards the hills, the crypto team held out. “Fortnite Token is not a scam cryptocurrency project,” he replied. “Instead, it’s a cryptocurrency project created by fans of Fortnite games, fairly launched and community – driven, with no specific ownership or corporate structure behind it or a CEO deciding its coming.”
Sweeney, who appears to have plenty of free time for a guy who is the CEO and major shareholder of a multi-billion-dollar company with, one would assume, a fairly powerful legal department, took up the challenge. “That’s not how trademarks and copyrights work,” he replied. “You may not use Fortnite’s name and images without permission to market an unrelated product.”
This is not how trademarks and copyrights work. You may not use the Fortnite name and images without permission to market an unrelated product.June 6, 2022
Not long after, he raised the ghost of Epic’s legal department and reiterated the claim that Fortnite Token is a scam, adding that “Epic’s lawyers are on it (opens in a new tab). “
However, that was not the end. Sweeney scanned Fortnite Tokens tweets and responded with some variation of “it’s a scam” to no less than nine of those going back as far as early February. Still, while Sweeney apparently has a very gloomy view of Fortnite Token, his enthusiasm for cryptocurrency generally does not seem to be waning.
“When a new technology comes out, some people use it well and some use it badly,” he said. tweeted (opens in a new tab). “It would be terribly myopic to ban an entire field of technology for such a reason.”
This is consistent with Sweeney’s previous position on the subject: He said in October 2021 that although Epic will not integrate cryptocurrency into its own games, so Welcome to games that use blockchain technology (opens in a new tab) provided they comply with applicable laws, disclose their terms and are age-rated by an appropriate group. “
“As a technology, blockchain is just a distributed transaction database with a decentralized business model that encourages investment in hardware to expand database capacity. It is useful whether its particular use succeeds or fails.”
Epic’s position stands in stark contrast to Valves, which in December 2021 banned “apps based on blockchain technology.” (opens in a new tab) issuing or allowing the exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs “from Steam. Unfortunately, Epic’s friendly policy towards blockchain games does not seem to have got off to a flying start: Epic Store’s first NFT game, Grit, (opens in a new tab) is a cowboy battle royale that is a little more “what’s tarnation” than “yeehaw, partner!” »”
Epic Games declined to comment on the case beyond Sweeney’s statements on Twitter.