Epic Games Wins Default Judgement As Defendant Fails to Respond


It’s been a while since MMO Fallout followed up on Epic Games v. C.R., the lawsuit where Epic brought complaint against a defendant who turned out to be a minor. C.R. was being accused of continuing to cheat in Fortnite, and promote said cheats through Youtube videos/streaming, in spite of over a dozen account bans by Epic. Epic filed a copyright claim against his video, defendant counterclaimed, and Epic filed suit as required by copyright law.

Most of the updates on this case have revolved around sealing and redacting documents to remove C.R.’s name from the record, so I’ve taken the liberty of skipping their coverage as to not bore all of you. The last couple of months have brought some small updates, ultimately leading to a decision within the past couple of days. Those of you who have followed the case know that C.R.’s mother wrote a letter to the court asking for them to dismiss the case, and I pointed out at the time that this may be damaging as it could be construed by the court as an official response and a motion to dismiss. I wasn’t wrong, and the court accepted the letter and interpreted it as an official motion to dismiss.

The motion was denied because it didn’t properly address the plaintiff’s claims, a premise that shouldn’t be surprising when you consider that it wasn’t written by a lawyer, or intended to be an actual legal filing. Following the court’s denial of the motion to dismiss in July, Epic Games once again filed a motion for entry of default, as outside of the initial letter from C.R.’s mother, they have not actually responded to Epic’s complaint.

After continuing to miss deadlines for response, the court this week granted Epic’s motion for default judgement, meaning Epic will likely get what it wants. And what does Epic want? Let’s go back to the prayer for relief in Epic’s initial complaint.

Epic wants the court to enter judgement in their favor and adjudge the defendant to have infringed on Epic’s copyright, to have contributory infringement, to have breached the terms of service, to have interfered in contracts between Epic and its other players through their cheating, and for the court to declare that the infringements were willing in nature. As punishment, Epic has demanded that the defendant be permanently barred from infringing or contributing to infringement, ie; cheating in their games and distributing/promoting said cheats, as well as deleting any videos showing said cheats and copies of said software off of his computer.

Now let’s talk money. Epic has demanded the maximum statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. § 504, which allows up to $30,000 (as the court considers just) with an exception for cases where the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving willful infringement, in which case the maximum damage shoots up to $150,000 (again, as the court considers just). Alternately, Epic may ask for the “actual damages,” which were not specified. In addition, Epic has asked for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenditures, as well as any further relief the court may deem proper.

Will Epic get paid? In my humble opinion, we’re more likely to see this end in a bankruptcy filing by the family.

Electronic Arts Gambles On Loot Boxes, Now Under Criminal Investigation


Loot boxes in 2018 are a multi-million dollar business, and Electronic Arts loves loot boxes so much that it is willing to potentially perform criminal acts in order to keep that sweet cash flowing. Such is the case in Belgium, where the Brussel’s public prosecutor’s office has officially opened a criminal investigation into Electronic Arts over allegations that the company is violating the law against gambling.

Earlier this year, Belgium’s Gaming Commission found several games to be in violation of its anti-gambling laws. EA doesn’t agree, and has simply refused to comply with orders to remove the offending purchases.

“We don’t believe that FIFA Ultimate Team or loot boxes are gambling firstly because players always receive a specified number of items in each pack, and secondly we don’t provide or authorize any way to cash out or sell items or virtual currency for real money,” said CEO Andrew Wilson.

(Source: PC Gamer)

Daybreak To Transfer Development of H1Z1 PC To NantG Mobile, Be Renamed (Again!)


As part of today’s announcement that Daybreak Game Company has received a notable investment, the H1Z1 team has announced that the PC version of H1Z1 will be transferred over to the team at NantG Mobile lead by Jace Hall, Chairman of Twin Galaxies. As part of this changeover, H1Z1’s PC version will be renamed Z1 Battle Royale at some point in the future.

“Daybreak still maintains and controls design direction and publishing for H1Z1 on other platforms, and therefore it is likely that over time there will start to be significant differences between what Daybreak does with its versions as compared to what we are doing with ours. Having multiple versions, that are significantly different — with the same name is confusing, so eventually we’ll be formally renaming H1Z1 PC. I wanted to clarify this now so that the community isn’t surprised by this later.”
-Jace Hall

Today’s announcement also revealed that mobile versions of H1Z1 and Everquest are in the works.

(Source: H1Z1)

Daybreak Game Company Gets New Investor, Mobile Everquest Coming


Daybreak Game Company today has announced strategic investment by NantWorks, a holding company, and some developments have dripped out to the public regarding a mobile Everquest title as well as mobile H1Z1.

“In connection with the investment, NantWorks has obtained a controlling interest in a new joint venture with Daybreak, NantG Mobile, LLC, which has been formed to develop and publish mobile versions of Daybreak’s current games – H1Z1 and EverQuest – and to build and publish video games across all platforms. In addition, the JV will now assume control and management of the current PC H1Z1 Battle Royale game. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, CEO and Chairman of NantWorks and Owner and Executive Chairman of the Los Angeles Times, will join Daybreak’s board of directors.”

“Daybreak’s well tested game engine currently running EverQuest and H1Z1, combined with the proprietary next generation mobile game engine which we will develop and launch in the joint venture, are platforms which will enable unprecedented scale and provide enjoyment to millions of simultaneous players,” said John Wiacek, NantG Mobile’s Head of Game Engine Development.

(Source: BusinessWire)

Wildstar To Shut Down, Carbine Studios Will Close


Carbine Studios will close its doors and Wildstar Online will shut down, according to an announcement released today by NCSoft. Kotaku broke the story, noting that the layoffs at Carbine will include 50 people and comes after at least two projects failed to gain traction with the studio’s parent company and publisher.

NCSoft stated to Kotaku,

“WildStar players who have spent money within the game will be refunded purchases from July 1, 2018 until the payment system is shut off. We are also in the process of identifying the teams that will be doing the work to bring WildStar to a close. These decisions are very difficult to make and we are in the midst of shifting as many of our teammates as possible into other roles within the organization.”

NCSoft’s reluctance to shut down Wildstar came off as confusing, despite effectively ending major content support and refusing to even acknowledge the title by name in its quarterly earnings reports. There have not been any concrete details released as of yet on when Wildstar will sunset its servers.

As of this article, the official Wildstar website has not posted an announcement related to this news.

IPE Update: Trion Worlds Overruled, Receives Warning Over Procedural Violations


Who would have thought we’d be talking about Trion Worlds using incorrect font sizes?

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time for an update on the case of Van Fleet v Trion Worlds, an active lawsuit in San Mateo County Court that seeks class action status regarding two major offenses: That Trion Worlds misled customers by offering a 10% discount and then did not follow through, and the question on whether or not lockboxes in ArcheAge constitute an illegal lottery.

If you need more backstory, go here. For the rest, let’s move on.

You may recall in the last episode of In Plain English, Trion Worlds had filed a demurrer (that’s a motion to dismiss) against the claims of illegal lottery and notably not the claims of misleading advertising, with a court hearing scheduled for August 23. The notes from the hearing have just become available, so let’s go through them.

To keep the story short, both demurrers filed by Trion Worlds on the basis of standing and failing to allege facts have been overruled by the court. The real meat and potatoes of this story resides in the fact that Judge Weiner had some comments regarding improper procedure by Trion Worlds lawyers.

The judge accuses Trion’s lawyers of skirting statutory page limitations via over-use of footnotes, and that the footnotes were not in 12-point font as required by law. It may seem like a small error from the outside looking in, but the courts take these procedures seriously enough that Judge Weiner threatened to strike down future briefs that do not adhere to procedural statutory laws.

Judge Weiner went even further by striking Trion’s evidence as being improperly submitted. Trion Worlds submitted with its demurrer screenshots and information from ArcheAge, and did not formally request judicial notice. Trion’s request for judicial notice regarding its End User License Agreement was denied.

“Judicial notice is a rule in the law of evidence that allows a fact to be introduced into evidence if the truth of that fact is so notorious or well known, or so authoritatively attested, that it cannot reasonably be doubted. This is done upon the request of the party seeking to rely on the fact at issue.”

In its pleadings, Trion also attempted to convert the demurrer (motion to dismiss) into a summary adjudication, essentially asking the judge to make a ruling without going to trial. The court declined to do so.

So where do we stand now? Trion Worlds has until September 17 to file its answer to the First Amended Complaint, after which a Case Management Conference will be held on October 26 where the parties will discuss status of discovery, status of settlement or mediation, any other possible motions, as well as the date of the following CMC, plus any other matters pertinent to the case.

Parties will also discuss the status of the lawsuit class action certification, including any further research needed to support or deny such a claim.

I have uploaded a copy of the Case Management Order to the MMO Fallout Google Drive, linked below.

(Source: Docket)

CCP Games Acquired By Pearl Abyss


CCP Games announced this week that the studio, developer of popular MMO Eve Online, has been acquired by Pearl Abyss, best known for their work on Black Desert Online. The deal, which does not close until October (expected), claims that CCP will continue operating as an independent entity, the sale amounting to $425 million in cash and bonuses leveraged on certain financial results.

CEO Hilmar Petursson, CCP Games, stated:

“Pearl Abyss is a fast-growing company with lots to offer in terms of technology, capability and vision. I believe our two companies have a lot to learn from each other. We are very excited to join forces with them and achieve great new heights for our companies, our games and – above all – our players.”

(Source: GI.Biz)

Steam Introduces Updated Filtering, Adult Only Games


Several months after announcing impending changes to its storefront, Valve this week implemented a number of changes to Steam to alter what players see and what they can opt to ignore.

First and foremost, the upcoming release list is being changed to “take into account the pre-release interest in a game — that is to say, data we gather through wishlists, pre-purchase, and a developer’s or publisher’s past titles.” Users will be able to see a customized list of upcoming titles generated based on the developers they follow, their wishlists, their play data, and more.

The raw unfiltered list will still be available for those who prefer it.

Secondly to this update are improved tools that users can take advantage of to ignore certain things that they do not want to see on the Steam store. In addition to it now being possible to ignore games by developer/publisher, users can ignore up to ten tags as well as set their filtering to ignore games with mature content, or allow mature content but block sexual content.

A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can ignore things you’re not interested in. In the past you’ve been able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or Early Access) you didn’t want to see again. But now we’ve added ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers, publishers, and curators.

Developers will now be required to contextualize the mature content in their games, if there is any, similar to how the ESRB collects data to determine ratings. Valve will simply collect that data and use it to allow gamers to filter out titles that they do not want to see.

Finally, Valve noted action taken against a number of developers publishing titles that fell under the trolling rules that Steam has in place, noting that the wide variety of games and publishers were actually a very small number of bad actors. In regards to the new requirements above, Valve will be going through the back catalog to ensure compliance with titles that are already on the Steam store.

Valve also detailed how it determines a “troll game” in vague wording, which we have quoted in its entirety below:

“Our review of something that may be “a troll game” is a deep assessment that actually begins with the developer. We investigate who this developer is, what they’ve done in the past, their behavior on Steam as a developer, as a customer, their banking information, developers they associate with, and more. All of this is done to answer the question “who are we partnering with and why do they want to sell this game?” We get as much context around the creation and creator of the game and then make an assessment. A trend we’re seeing is that we often ban these people from Steam altogether instead of cherry-picking through their individual game submissions. In the words of someone here in the office: “it really does seem like bad games are made by bad people.”

Old School RuneScape Mobile To Launch October 30


Jagex today announced the official launch of Old School RuneScape mobile will take place on October 30. The launch will bring the popular MMO to both Android and iOS devices, allowing gamers to play cross-platform with players on PC, and will be playable with existing accounts/characters.

Conor Crowley, director of game development at Jagex, stated:

“2018 has been a year of significant milestones for Old School RuneScape on mobile, from the first closed betas at the start of the year, to the successful Members Only Beta and recent Canadian and Nordic soft launches over the summer, but none of them have been as highly anticipated as this. We are incredibly proud to confirm that Old School RuneScape on mobile is now just a matter of weeks from a full launch; we know our players – both existing and returning – have long wanted to play the game they love while away from their PCs. The countdown to 30thOctober is underway!”

The app is currently available to pre-register for on the iOS and App Store. Old School RuneScape had previously soft launched in Canada, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

Download the Kung Fu Tea App, Get Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition Free


Arenanet and Kung Fu Tea might not be as iconic a duo as Bonnie & Clyde or peanut butter and banana, but what their partnership can bring you is a free upgrade to the heroic edition of Guild Wars 2.

For the month of September, you can download the Kung Fu Tea app on your smart device, connect your social media account, and receive a code for the Guild Wars 2 heroic edition. The code will remove many of the restrictions on free to play players, as well as provide you with an 18 slot inventory box, 10 experience boosters, and a unique Guild Wars 2 armor set. If you’d like to go further, and live in the United States, you can enter the daily sweepstakes and have a chance at winning a copy of the deluxe edition.

  1. Download the Kung Fu Tea App
  2. Connect Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter via the App (Social Rewards)
  3. Enter the Guild Wars 2 Daily Sweepstakes (via Social Rewards section)
  4. Post a picture of your Elder Dragon Dreamy Delight (a.k.a. Cocoa Cream Wow) and use #GW2xKFT
  5. ENJOY YOUR DRINK!

(Source: Kung Fu Tea)