Quebec parents who claim their kids were hooked to the video game filed a case against the creator of Fortnite. Which was approved by a judge on the Canadian Supreme Court. According to BBC News, three parents complained before Justice Sylvain Lussier in July. The companies that their children had stopped eating, sleeping, and taking showers due to their apparent dependence on Fortnite.
Global News reported Lussier’s decision on Wednesday. His decision concluded that the class-action lawsuit wasn’t “frivolous or manifestly ill-founded.” The existence of hazards or even dangers resulting from the use of Fortnite. It is a significant topic that has to be debated, according to Lussier’s decision.4
In an interview, a lawyer for the company that filed the lawsuit compared the game’s developer, Epic Games, to a tobacco producer and said that their legal obligations were “basically the same.”
“Our motion was heavily inspired by the tobacco motion just in terms of what we were alleging.” Lawyer Alessandra Esposito Chartrand expressed himself.
Lussier reiterated the analogy between tobacco and video gaming addictions. Although, he concluded, “The harmful effect of tobacco was not recognized or admitted overnight.” The court rejected the parents’ argument that Epic Games purposefully designed a Fortnite addict.
Fortnite often draws 80 million active gamers
“The court finds that there is no evidence for these allegations of the deliberate creation of an addictive game,” the judge wrote. “This does not exclude the possibility that the game is, in fact, addictive and that its designer and distributor are presumed to know it.”In a statement acquired by BBC, Epic Games refuted the legality of the lawsuit.
“Parents can receive playtime reports that track the amount of time their child plays each week and require parental permission before purchases are made,” the company said. “We plan to fight this in court. The evidence will show that this case is meritless.
According to techacake.com, Fortnite often draws more than 80 million active gamers monthly. Other Fortnite users in Quebec think they have displayed signs of addiction to the game. They are taking part in the class action.
The game is free to play. Even trying to solve the problem from a financial standpoint would not be sufficient. The game does have parental controls, suing the creators for excessive gameplay is pointless because it is the responsibility of the parents to set reasonable time limits.
The vast majority of people in the community strongly agree with this opinion. Most social media comments openly criticized the case and expressed surprise that it was even permitted to continue.