An Epic Games contractor serving as a Fortnite community operations manager has been suspended following accusations of black market dealing.
The Russian contractor is being accused of generating and selling Minty pickaxe codes on the black market, leaking payouts from Creator maps, helping to boost their friends' Discovery maps, and trying to edit other Discovery maps with the intention of having them removed.
In a more comprehensive account of the contractor's alleged misdeeds (which we aren't linking as it may contain sensitive personal information), it's also claimed that Creator tags were removed to prevent creators from receiving due compensation.
The Fortnite News Twitter account tweeted out some of these claims on Thursday, adding, "Epic have already taken down multiple videos regarding this topic." Indeed, Twitter user @ItsADAMO_ tweeted a YouTube video calling on Epic to look into the situation, but the video appears to have been hit with a copyright claim from Epic itself and taken down.
The Epic Games Newsroom has now publicly acknowledged the claims. In a response to a Fortnite News Twitter thread about the allegations, Epic confirmed that the contractor's access to Fortnite's systems has been blocked while it investigates. It also affirmed that the aforementioned video was taken down over privacy concerns.
"We have blocked this contractor’s access to Epic’s systems while we actively investigate these claims," the tweet reads. "The video was taken down because of the sensitive personal information included about creators in the Fortnite community."
The Epic Games contractor in question has seemingly deleted or privated their social media profiles following these claims and Epic's statement. We've reached out to Epic about the status and scope of its investigation, and we'll update this article if we hear back.
