Epic Games is suing one of its former contract workers, alleging that he is notorious Fortnite leaker AdiraFN

Hayden Cohen, a former contractor at Epic Games, is facing legal action for allegedly sharing the company's secrets on X and Discord under the name AdiraFN.

Game companies tend not to like leakers as a matter of principle, but Cohen's problems are compounded by the fact that he allegedly shared the information while under a non-disclosure agreement. NDAs, as they're known, are contracts that commit signatories to not divulging information they may discover while carrying out specific, typically job-related duties. They're serious business, as Epic's action makes clear.

Cohen signed an NDA, as required by the terms of his employment, but instead of not sharing the sensitive information as he'd promised to in the legally-binding document to which he'd affixed his signature, Epic alleges in its complaint that he "repeatedly misappropriated Epic's trade secret information and broadcasted it publicly through his anonymous social media accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Discord, operating under the alias 'AdiraFN' and 'AdiraFNInfo'."

"The leaked information could not have been obtained through any legitimate means and was not otherwise available to the public (such as through data mining public builds of Fortnite for unreleased content)," Epic claims.

"Defendant leaked Epic's confidential trade secret information that was accessible to him solely because he worked on projects for Epic, and his corresponding access to Epic's internal systems and channels."

The social media accounts in question have been deleted or scrubbed, but evidence of AdiraFN's leakage is plentiful: As recently as February 19, for instance, the account claimed (via Hypex) that a Fortnite collaboration with Game of Thrones is in the works. Other notable crossovers leaked by the account include Kingdom Hearts, Marvel Rivals, K-Pop Demon Hunters, and He-Man.

Epic shared a couple other examples in its complaint:

Amusingly, when the AdiraFNInfo accounts were closed, a few followers speculated that it was for precisely this reason: That Epic figured out who the leaker was, and had dropped the hammer on them.

My first thought upon hearing this case was, "Why?" Why would someone torpedo their livelihood and future employment prospects just to anonymously share some secret videogame happenings? It was all for "clout," Epic said in its complaint, which alleges Cohen "regularly leaked confidential details about more than a dozen unannounced collaborations and upcoming content releases in Fortnite publicly to thousands of his followers on X and Discord, and was then amplified to reach hundreds of thousands of others with millions of views."

That doesn't seem like a great reason to start a fight with Epic's legal team, especially since it has not been reluctant to pursue matters like this in the courts, but on the other hand I've never sampled the pleasures of clout so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing. In any event, Epic is demanding a permanent injunction against further leaks, the destruction of all confidential information in Cohen's possession, and—this is the part that will hurt—financial damages and legal fees.