Epic Games Settles With the Contractor Behind the AdiraFN Leaks

Epic Games has reached a proposed settlement with the former contractor it accused of being AdiraFN, the anonymous account behind a run of Fortnite leaks. The account had built a following by revealing Fortnite crossovers before Epic made them official. Under the agreement, the defendant would be permanently barred from possessing, accessing, using, or disclosing any of Epic's confidential or trade secret information, or helping anyone else do the same. A judge still has to sign off on it before it takes effect.

Epic filed the suit in March and named former Fortnite contractor Hayden Cohen as the person running the AdiraFN and AdiraFNInfo accounts on X and Discord. Cohen had signed a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of his work, a contract committing him to keep job-related information private. Epic's complaint said he did the opposite, repeatedly misappropriating trade secret information and broadcasting it publicly through those accounts. The company also stressed the leaked details could not have come from data mining public Fortnite builds and were accessible to Cohen only because he worked on Epic projects and could reach its internal systems.

The leaks were not minor. Before Epic announced them, AdiraFN revealed more than a dozen Fortnite collaborations, including tie-ins with Kingdom Hearts, Marvel Rivals, K-Pop Demon Hunters, He-Man, Solo Leveling, and South Park. A February 19 post claimed a Game of Thrones crossover was in the works. Epic said the posts reached thousands of followers directly and hundreds of thousands more through amplification, pulling in millions of views, and it put the motive down to clout. When the accounts were closed, some followers guessed Epic had identified the leaker; the accounts have since been deleted or scrubbed.

Epic confirmed the proposed settlement in a statement to PC Gamer.

"We've asked the court to approve the stipulated injunction to ensure they cannot publish or share Epic's confidential information again."

— Natalie Munoz, Epic Games director of corporate communications

As noted by Game File, the proposed settlement lists only that injunction and makes no mention of a monetary penalty, even though Epic's original complaint sought compensatory damages, unjust enrichment, legal fees, and the destruction of any confidential information in Cohen's possession. I read the absent damages figure as the real surprise here, because Epic has chased money before and won: it once left a Fortnite cheater fined $175K after he pocketed $6,850 in tournament prizes. Munoz said the company had nothing further to share.

Epic has taken these fights to court before, and its March filing asked for the full slate. The company has a record of pursuing leakers and cheaters rather than letting cases go quietly. The proposed settlement keeps the injunction and drops the rest. I still can't work out the trade Cohen made, risking his job and future prospects to post unreleased crossovers under a fake name for an audience that never knew who he was. Epic wanted the accounts silenced and the secrets locked down, and the injunction delivers both, pending the judge's approval.

Read also, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has floated a concept called Team Open, which would let Steam users launch games such as Fortnite, League of Legends, and Genshin Impact directly through Valve's platform while publishers keep running their own accounts and services behind the scenes. Sweeney argues the setup would widen each game's reach while letting publishers keep control of their live-service infrastructure.

Epic is developing a Disney extraction shooter with a planned November release, the first title from Disney's $1.5 billion investment in the studio. Bloomberg reports it will land alongside Bungie's Marathon, Krafton's PUBG: Black Budget, and Deep Worlds' Beautiful Light in one of the year's most crowded genres.