Epic Games Is Being Sued Over 'Fortnite' Dance Moves... Again

It’s no secret that Epic Games make the vast majority of its profits from its free-to-play shooter Fortnite.

Despite the game being available to download for free, Epic has made billions through the sale of outfits, skins, weapons, and emotes, which players use to customise their characters in game. The company makes so much money from these sales that when it donated just five days worth of revenue to Ukrainian humanitarian causes the amount totalled $70 million. With all the money that is being thrown at it, you would think it could afford to pay choreographers to create the game’s infamous dances. 

You can see the trailer for the latest chapter of Fortnite, which has a new mode without the ability to build, below. 

This isn’t the first time that Epic has been in trouble over some of the choreography used in its popular emotes. Most famously, social influencer Russell Horning, best known as Backpack Kid, sued the company for stealing the moves to the game’s most recognisable emote The Floss. While it was clear that the content creator, who has over a million followers on Instagram, had used the dance before it appeared in game, he never copyrighted the moves and therefore he had no legal recourse. 

According to a report by Dexerto, this time Epic has come under fire for the It’s Complicated emote, which has been on sale in Fortnite for almost a year. The creator of the move and choreographer, Kyle Hanagami, copyrighted the dance which he uploaded to YouTube around four years ago. 

Despite the copyright, this won’t be an easy case for Hanagami to prove. While the emote does start with a two to three second portion apparently taken from Hanagami’s routine, it then continues, adding more steps. However, if Hanagami does win the case, he will be the first to do so, and could lead to change in the way Epic creates emotes.

Hanagami is suing Epic for legal fees, unspecified damages, and if he wins, the emote will be removed from sale.

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