Fortnite
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Fortnite is bringing indie music into its gaming platform with a new soundtrack option called Radio Underground. The playlist, which is curated by Bandcamp editors, will be available through March 8, when the game’s Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 1 comes to an end.
Fortnite’s creator, Epic Games, purchased Bandcamp in March 2022, and this new initiative marks the first integration between Epic’s flagship game and the indie music marketplace and service. At the time of the acquisition, Epic pointed to its “vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more” as one of the reasons behind the deal, while Bandcamp founder/CEO Ethan Diamond noted that the partnership would help it expand internationally.
The 11 tracks and artists on the offering do combine some international acts (Panama’s Jungle Rat USA, Pale Blue Eyes from the U.K. and New Zealand group The Beths) as well as U.S. artists like Starflyer 59, Ronnie Martin, Gladie, Pow Wow!, P.E., De Lux, Pool Kids and Ginger Root.
Initially, the acquisition of a dearly-loved indie platform like Bandcamp by a gaming company like Epic was viewed with some skepticism as to what the overarching plan was for any integration between the two, though both sides were clear at the time that Bandcamp would continue to operate as a standalone entity. But this announcement also offers a clue as to how the two can be seamlessly brought together, giving Epic easily-licensable music that it can bring to its Fortnite gaming experience while offering another opportunity for Bandcamp artists to get their music heard and, more importantly to Bandcamp’s mission, get those musicians paid for the use of their music online.
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Source: Neilson Barnard / Getty / Fortnite
Epic Games, the studio that gave us arguably the most popular game in the world, Fortnite, pockets got a bit lighter.
Spotted on Kotaku, Epic Games will have to dip into its funds and pay an astounding $520 million combined settlement after the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) found the company invaded kid’s privacy and was tricking some of its players into purchasing things in Fortnite, they didn’t want.
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The FTC announced the epic (no pun intended) penalty on Monday, Dec.19, pointing out that it is the most significant penalty in the history of the regulatory commission. In response to the fine, Epic Games said, “No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here.”
So What Did Epic Games’ Do?
According to the FTC, the multi-billion dollar video game developer was making money off children without following the rules to protect them while playing online games.
One settlement was for Epic Games to collect information from Fortnite players under 13 and in-game settings that automatically turn on voice and text chat by default. That was considered a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule resulting in a $275 million fine and a commitment from Epic Games to change the default settings in Fortnite.
The second settlement was for using “dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases.” According to the FTC, Epic accidentally made it easy to purchase skins and hard to locate the refund option.
The FTC also alleges that Epic Games sometimes banned accounts that could secure refunds leaving players locked out of the content they accidentally paid for. For its egregiousness, Epic Games put $245 million into a fund to help reimburse players for those accidental purchases.
Fortnite has made $9 billion, so this fine is just a slap on the wrist for Epic Games, but still, it’s a costly one.
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Photo: Neilson Barnard / Getty