Yesterday, we reported that Epic Games was suing the Fortnite Live Norwich Festival organizers. We won’t recap the event in detail here, but suffice to say that the February 16th-17th event at the Norfolk Showground Arena in Norwich was an unmitigated wreck that was so awful that hundreds of parents demanded their money back and tons of kids went home totally miserable.
What just made the whole fiasco crazier is that the festival’s organizer, Exciting Events Limited, didn’t even have permission from Epic Games to use their materials or put on the event in the first place. So it was no surprise that Epic sued.
The Fortnite Live Norwich Festival Organizer Is Toast
Now we’ve got an update. Within just one day, Exciting Events Limited was liquidated. Quoting company director Shaun Lord, The Guardian reports, “These proceedings by Epic Games has had a catastrophic impact on the company’s ability to trade, which has forced Exciting Events Limited to cease all trading activities immediately and the director of Exciting Events will now seek to limit the losses to third parties as far as possible.”
In order to reduce those third party losses, Exciting Events states that their liquidated assets will be “distributed among the creditors, including the HMRC in the first instance. Where any funds are left over, the distribution will be equally divided amongst other creditors.”
Will customers get their money back? Hopefully. Exciting Events added, “All Fortnite Live Spalding and Newark ticket holders will automatically be included on the creditor list. There will be no exceptions to this rule.”
Shaun Lord claims that the “vast majority of children loved Fortnite Live Norwich.” Judging by other reports, he seems to have a pretty liberal definition of “vast.”
Did Exciting Events have good intentions, and simply screw up on a massive scale? Usually we’d lean toward that interpretation … but the fact that they used Epic’s materials without permission is pretty hard to spin in a neutral or forgiving way. It appears they simply tried to use Fortnite’s popularity to make some fast and easy cash.
One wonders what other types of events this company has put on in the past. In any case, retribution was swift and lethal. One thing is certain, and that is that one should not mess with Epic Games. Keep up with all Fortnite news and rumors right here on VGR.