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A father and his son claim that the makers of the game Fortnite use manipulative tactics to encourage players, especially minors, to make in-game purchases.
Plaintiff Steve Altes says that his son, R.A., is a minor who plays the popular video game Fortnite.
Fortnite is an “open-world survival video game in which players collect weapons, tools, and resources, also commonly referred to as loot, in order to survive and advance in the game.”
According to Altes, “loot” is acquired either by earning points in the game or by using real-world money to make in-game purchases.
The Fortnite in-game purchases class action lawsuit claims that Fortnite preys on minors and their inability to make good judgements and exercise self-control around money.
This allegedly has led Fortnite to gain exorbitant prices just from in-game purchases. Altes notes at Fornite has gained $1 billion in profits just from in-game purchases.
To support this claim, Altes cites experts, including UNC Healthcare pediatrician Jeffrey Ryan who notes that “kids younger than 12 cannot regulate themselves because they don’t have the frontal lobe capacity to do so.”
The Fortnite class action lawsuit goes on to say that this lack of regulation can cause “addictive tendencies where a child cannot set limits or stop certain behaviors.”
Allegedly, Epic Games Inc. takes advantage of this to encourage children to spend their own money and their parents’ money on purchases as they move through the game.
The plaintiff says these in-game purchases are in many cases, the key to enabling a player to advance through the game, so the motivation to make these purchases is strong.
Altes claims that Epic uses a range of other psychological tactics to entice consumers into making in-game purchases. Allegedly, the in-game purchases are made using a fake currency — V bucks, which are purchased with real money, and customers are not able to track how much they spend on in-game purchases.
The Fortnite class action states that the fake currency that is used in the game results in players, mostly children, feeling like they are not spending real money, when, in fact, they are.
Additionally, Altes says that V-bucks do not translate equally to real dollars, so their amounts are sometimes deceptive to discern.
V-bucks purchases are made in amounts that reportedly do not correlate to the price of in-game purchases, so customers continue to not have enough V-bucks to make a purchase when given the opportunity, so they continually have to purchase more V-bucks to make use of extra V-bucks that they have after a purchase.
Epic Games Inc. is also faced with another class action lawsuit, in which players allege that they were injured by a data breach that took place in the summer of 2018.
R.A. and Altes are represented by Daniel L. Warshaw, Melissa S. Weiner, and Alexander L. Simon of Pearson Simon & Warshaw LLP, and by Jeffrey Kaliel and Sophia Gold of Kaliel PLLC.
The Fortnite In-Game Purchases Class Action Lawsuit is R.A., et al. v. Epic Games Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-01488-GW-E, in the U.S. District Court for the Central Division of California, Western Division.
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623 thoughts onFortnite Class Action Says Minors Lured Into In-Game Purchases
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Usually there are forms to fill out, but I couldn’t locate any for this law suit
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Add me please….This has caused my son an incredible amount of desperation. He is constantly wanting v bucks 3 or 4 times a week! I am embarrassed and ashamed at how much money has been spent and lost,,,some approved some not. It’s gotta to be at least 2 to 3 thousand. Could be more but I sure hope not. I have seen it cause such distress in my son, and begging and begging me to please buy him some he needs to get to the next level or the latest skin that he absolutely must have. The problem isThere is always another skin coming out or the latest and greatest (I just found out these are daily OMG) And then there’s the battle passes. And these are expensive and what they allow you to do is level up they always bundle things so that if you spend and get the most expensive you get something a little extra. Most people don’t have enough money to buy the level upYou can do it in the game but it is very hard to do and takes a long time. For example he is just telling me about search Chest at salty springs and this is very difficult (Now he’s laughing so hard because I said it wrong and it’s not what I wrote in here so he is killing himself laughing there’s a positive).he says it’s an example of a weekly to earn XP(whatsXP I am asking him. It’s experience) I am watching him right now explain in (and I had to convince him he would not get banned from the game because I am doing this, he was in panic mode but I have him convinced that I am just writing all the different options because there are so many and so often you have to pay and I can’t even remember them all or keep it straight)and he is talking so fast and getting excited. This is a major problem and I feel like he is addicted. He thinks about this game (now he is talking about starter parks he says they are only $5 but you keep needing them for some reason) you can also buy loot lamas ….he just said mom this game is free…all you have to buy is everything I just talked about (if he felt I was writing something bad about the options….he would say oh don’t worry about that one). He is a 9 year old sweet. Loving kind thinks of others he shares teachers say he is the so smart (do you realize your son is gifted….we see a kid like him every 10 years quote from his kindergarten teacher and every teacher he has had including the principle) he was reading at the age of 2.5 and fully reading at a grade 6 level by grade 1. Quite often his teachers get his to get something to the class on overhead or a notice or article that is way beyond the normal grade 1 to 3 because they knew he could do it. All he wants to do is play this game. He doesn’t want to go outside and play. He gets depressed if I say no but sometimes I give in cause he is my only son and it kills me to see him so sad. I am beside myself in all of this cause if I took that game away he would be beyond devastated. He is very well behaved and I can count on one hand how many times I had to punish him. His teachers say they wish every kid was just like him. He always listens never talks back has a lot of empathy for others. Gd has never given me a reason to ground him or take his game away but I just don’t know how he would be. Just crushed devastated and extremely depressed if I had to take it away. All he wants to talk about with ppl or his grandparents is this game and non kids have no clue or older generations a better description. I am disabled I have a condition with no cure that is like a curse it’s called cyclic vomiting syndrome and I can violently vomit between 5 and 8 days every 30 min all 24 hours of day and all the days of the week. Most times I need hospitaliZation as I become do dehydrated and lose 20 pounds (I weigh 125) and am so weak and like a bag of bones. It takes me another week to slowly be able to eat and regain my strength and hydration. So when an episode stricken I have to just let him play while I find someone that can come over while I go to er so there are many times I had no choice but to let him play as I am incapacitated and suffer a great deal. Then the financial side of it. I’m on disability and don’t get very much so things that I need I go without because I want him to be happy and At times during an episode I was glad he was occupied instead of listening to me violently vomit or worry about me being in hospital. It had been. A curse and a saviour for me and then I get depressed thinking about all the money that just goes to nothing. He feels like he actually has things and doesn’t under my concept my you don’t get anything…..(but I get all those things I just explained you mom) I don’t want for much …,my dream is go build my own 400 square ft tiny house and live on a small acreage (I bet I have 1/3 of that tiny house in V bucks)
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My kid spent a little less than $1000
I wish to be added to this class action suit. Grand son downloaded “vbucks” when I found out changed passwords, pass codes in an attempt to stop this drain. MS initially agreed to reimburse but when more was found refused.
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