We know that video games can be very addictive, or generally time consuming, but for a group of parents Fortnite is the equivalent of heroin.
The most famous battle royale in the world, which in the meantime has become an all-round brand with all kinds of gadgets, has always been the center of attention.
Also thanks to the continuous collaborations that Fortnite manages to obtain, not least the one with The Witcher, which have made the Epic Games title ever more popular.
Especially among the young and very young, so much so that the company has thought of introducing a specific account designed to protect younger players.
But that didn’t stop a group of parents who, in 2019, sued Fortnite because it was equated to heroin.
Like a real addiction, even though WHO has declared recently that video games are actually the opposite, for which they started a legal fight with Epic Games.
A legal path which, as reported by PC Gamer, has been deemed suitable and is continuing.
In 2019, Canadian law firm Calex Legal sought approval to file a class action lawsuit against Epic Games on behalf of parents who claimed their children were addicted to Fortnite. As CTV News reported, a Quebec judge has now authorized the class action, which means the lawsuit can proceed.
The law firm said in its filing that Fortnite addiction “is similar to cocaine addiction,” citing a 2018 story in which a British behavioral specialist claimed that Fortnite “is like heroin”.
Many experts were involved in the lawsuit, as well as many case studies of young and very young players who would have been harmed by Epic Games’ battle royale.
The legal action also takes advantage of the pre-Covid WHO position, which at the time coined the “video game disorder”. Position changed, as mentioned above, after the advent of the lockdowns and the related psychological repercussions.
The class action approval is just the beginning of the process, but it’s a big step forward, as the judge said the parents involved now “have a defensible case to make.”
And to think that there are those who claim that playing video games is the equivalent of a thousand abs, absurdly.
If nothing else, it’s true that video games infuriate us, as demonstrated by a study that also divided up game types, platforms and player profiles.
