Another Epic Games Lawsuit Settled With Permanent Injunction


Another Epic Games Fortnite lawsuit has been settled this month. Back in October, Epic Games filed lawsuits against a number of people creating and disseminating cheats for Fortnite in California and North Carolina state courts. A couple of those cases have already been settled and it looks like most of these cases will end with the defendants permanently barred from (possibly) playing and definitely from creating, using, or distributing cheats for Fortnite or any of Epic’s other titles.

Epic alleges that Yakovenko created, developed, and/or wrote a purported software cheat for Fortnite’s Battle Royale game mode; Yakovenko then created and posted several videos on YouTube to advertise, demonstrate, and distribute his cheat; Yakovenko’s videos feature Epic’s FORTNITE mark and full screen gameplay using the purported cheat; and while Yakovenko’s “cheat” does not appear to be a functional Fortnite cheat, it functions as a bitcoin miner that infects the user’s computer with a virus that causes the user’s computer to mine bitcoin for the benefit of an unknown third party.

The terms of the judgement permanently bar Yakovenko from creating or using cheat software in any current or future game owned by Epic Games, or even assisting anyone with creating or using a cheat for one of Epic’s games. Both parties will be paying their own legal fees, and it looks like no monetary penalty will be taken against Yakovenko.

In other news, it looks like Epic Games may have sued another minor. Last year we talked about the lawsuit against 14 year old Caleb Rogers, whose case has not seen any progression since we last discussed it. Epic’s lawsuit in North Carolina court mirrors that of its lawsuit against Rogers, noting that the minor was posting videos on Youtube showing how to cheat and where to get said cheats, with the lawsuit essentially following up on a DMCA takedown notice that Epic had filed. The defendant, M.F., filed a counter-notice under the penalty of perjury that his videos were fair use. In cases where counter-claims are issued, the only option going forward for a copyright holder is to file a lawsuit.

As in the case of Rogers, it looks like Epic was not aware of the age of Moret before filing and as such a number of files have been sealed to the public regarding this case. As with the other cases, Epic appears to be pursuing a permanent injunction on cheating.

Perfect World Entertainment To Shutter War of the Immortals/Battle of the Immortals


War is immortal, unless of course you’re referring to Perfect World Entertainment’s War of the Immortals which is one hundred percent mortal. Perfect World today announced that two titles in its library will be shutting down next week, those being War of the Immortals and Battle of the Immortals. Both titles have been in operation for six years and will close down as of January 9 when the servers go down for good.

All payments from September 1 through December 14 will be credited back to your Arc account.

All WOI payments from September 1st, 2017 through December 14th, 2017 @ 11 AM PT will be converted into Arc credit and allocated to your account. These credits can be used in any of the other PWE games. Arc Points between this same time period will also be refunded to your account.

There was no official reason given for the shutdown, however activity on the forum would seem to indicate that this may be a standard case of low traffic/revenue.

(Source: Battle, War)

Old School RuneScape Launches Dragon Slayer II


Old School RuneScape is celebrating its fifth year with the revival of a classic in the form of Dragon Slayer II. The long awaited sequel to one of the first quests released for RuneScape, Dragon Slayer II is only for high level players that have completed a long list of requirements and are ready to go up against some challenging enemies. The quest also sees the launch of the Myths Guild, a questing guild only accessible to players with 200 quest points who complete the new Dragon Slayer quest.

While Dragon Quest II is for members only, free to play content related to the release is also out today in the form of a novice quest, the Corsair Curse, and the settlement Corsair Cove.

“More than 16 years after the original Dragon Slayer quest launched and gave players their toughest challenge, we’re giving them an even grander challenge to overcome with Dragon Slayer II, one of our most memorable adventures yet!” said Mathew Kemp, Senior Product Manager, Old School RuneScape. “2018 is a real milestone year for Old School RuneScape; in addition to celebrating our fifth anniversary next month, we’re of course looking forward to the launch of Old School on mobile platforms soon!”

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

Nexon Announces Biggest Third Quarter Ever In Earnings Release


Nexon has released its third quarter revenue results and the times are looking pretty good for the developer/publisher. Driven by strong performance of its top titles including Dungeon & Fighter, Fifa Online 3, and the Maplestory 2 test in China, Nexon enjoyed a 36% increase in revenue over last year with net income up 157% over the same period.

Q3 was a great quarter for Nexon, with revenues, operating income and net income well above our expectations. It was also the biggest Q3 ever. These strong results reflect continued growth in our key existing titles in China and Korea, as well as strong starts in new games both PC and mobile.

Over in North America, Nexon placed blame for lower than expected revenues squarely on the shoulders of Lawbreakers, which launched in August and never managed to develop a following. The earnings call indicates that Nexon is writing off Lawbreakers as a loss, as its impairment made up a majority of the losses for North America for this quarter, meaning that development will either be ceasing or there are plans to divest Nexon from Boss Key Productions.

Our results in North America in the third quarter were below our outlook, mainly due to the sales from LawBreakers being below our expectations. LawBreakers is a unique FPS developed for core users. We had very high expectations for its launch; however, the timing of its launch turned out to be unfortunate, specifically the blockbuster PC online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds came out right about the same time, making the market environment very tough for first-person shooters in general and for LawBreakers.

Nexon expects these fortunes to turn around in Q4 with the acquisition of Pixelberry Studios.

Nexon’s good fortunes are expected to continue into the fourth quarter and beyond with a strong schedule of games launching worldwide.

(Source: Report, Earnings Call)

Fake News: VAC Ban Wave Has Reason Muddied


There is no massive conspiracy to Valve’s recent ban wave of Team Fortress 2 bots, but cheaters would like you to think there is. Valve recently banned a large number of accounts taking part in catbot, a hacker who has been terrorizing Team Fortress 2 servers by flooding them with a large number of bots. News websites picked up on rumors and reports that Valve was simply banning anyone with “catbot” in their Linux username as an attempt to quickly get rid of the bots.

MMO Fallout can confirm that those reports are fake. A confirmed Valve employee has posted on Reddit to deny the claims, noting that these rumors are likely being circulated by the cheating community, and that Valve has not instituted a policy of banning by username.

The bug report–and I suspect many of the posts in this thread–are a tactic employed by cheaters to try and sow discord and distrust among anticheat systems. VAC has many different types of detections and we cannot discuss what they do publicly because doing so makes them less effective. However, one thing I can disclose is that all detections require that the detection occur while a user is actively cheating and connected to a VAC-secured server.

Those of you with Catbottom as your Linux username can breath easy, and log back into Team Fortress 2.

(Source: Reddit)

Police Arrest 25 Year Old Tyler Barriss Over Deadly Swatting Prank


Via NY Daily News

The Los Angeles Police Department has taken 25 year old Tyler Barriss into custody in connection with a deadly prank that culminated in the loss of a life earlier this week. Barriss, of Los Angeles, is being charged with a prank called “swatting,” in this case Barriss told the police that a man had been killed and his family held hostage.

Barriss had allegedly called in the false threat over a lost bet while playing Call of Duty. Finch was not involved in the game, the intended victim gave Barriss a fake address. The total sum of the wager was $2.

When 28 year old Andrew Thomas Finch answered the door, he was shot and killed by one police officer. The officer in question has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Finch was the father of two, and his children were not in the house at the time of the incident.

Barriss was arrested two years ago after sending bomb threats to ABC Studios. Police may find prosecution an easy task as Barriss appeared in an interview with Youtube personality Keemstar which appears to be a full confession of him calling in the prank.

A Gofundme for Finch’s funeral bills has gained nearly eight thousand dollars as of this publishing.

(Source: KWCH12)

Yanked PUBG Ad Is Basically Plagiarized From Community Artwork


The above photo is an Xbox One ad concept created by Reddit user Macsterr and posted on PUBG’s subreddit about a month ago. This image may look familiar if you follow Xbox on Twitter because someone from the company saw the concept and apparently loved it enough to create official advertising that you might refer to as an…aggressive homage. The following appeared on the Xbox Twitter account yesterday, December 26.

The original tweet has been deleted, but the internet doesn’t forget things so easily and the archived version can be found here. The tweet on the Xbox account as deleted with no additional statement by Microsoft.

(Source: Reddit)

Funcom Announces Acquisition Of Conan Property


Funcom has announced that it has approved plans to acquire 50% of the Conan the Barbarian portfolio. The acquisition, approved by the board and pending approval at a general investor meeting in January, would see Funcom benefiting from a 50% royalty reduction on Age of Conan and Conan Exiles while also acquiring 50% royalties for any game developed using Conan and various other properties acquired as part of this venture.

The joint venture company will hold interactive/video gaming Intellectual Property (IP) rights based on the works of Robert E. Howard and classic Swedish pen & paper and board game properties, including attractive IPs such as “Conan the Barbarian”, “Solomon Kane”, “Mutant Chronicles”, “Mutant: Year Zero”.

The acquisition will allow Funcom to secure more frequent launches of games both produced internally as well as co-developed and published from third party partners. Rather than paying cash, Funcom will be paying with shares, reducing risk and increasing revenues. More information on the acquisition can be found at the link below:

(Source: Funcom)

Giveaway: Global Adventures Closed Beta Key


MMO Fallout is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Suba Games and Pixelsoft in order to give away closed beta keys to Global Adventures, an action MMO that invites players to travel the world and seek hidden treasures. The beta does not start until December 29, however you can pick up a key now and register it to be prepared.

Check out the trailer below and grab your key even further down. Keys are IP-restricted, so if you’re trying to get your hands on multiple keys and aren’t having any luck, that would be why.

[keys id=20031]

Steps to Join Global Adventures’ Closed Beta
  1. Obtain a beta key. 
  2. In the Steam app, from the “Games” menu pick “Activate a Product on Steam…” 
  3. Follow the steps and enter your key when prompted. GA will be added to your Steam Library.
  4. Once GA has been released, you will be able to install and play the game.

PSA: Wild Buster, How To Unlock Duke/Sam, Turn Off Annoying Voices


Wild Buster launched today, and there seems to be some confusion on how Founders can unlock Duke Nukem and Serious Sam, or any of their founders items for that matter.

  1. Create a Wild Commando (Sam) or Titan Trooper character (Duke).
  2. Skip the tutorial because you aren’t five.
  3. Go to the Mailbox bot right next to the first portal.
  4. Click on the Event Tab
  5. Retrieve the skins.
  6. Right click on them to equip.

You can unequip the skins and place them in your stash if you want to share them between characters, but skins and mounts can only be redeemed once.