Fortnite Steal the Brainrot Being Sued

One of the biggest standouts in recent months for Fortnite has been one particularly divisive Creative map. In fact, the map was pretty divisive with players even before it was the center of a legal battle. The Fortnite Steal the Brainrot map has been incredibly popular.

While gameplay is minimal and its main feature is a deliberately stupid style of memes, it has captured players’ attention. It’s the kind of mode you can play without much focus, just a bit of fun if you turn your brain off. Which is exactly what Fortnite Creative maps are good for. However, the Fortnite Steal the Brainrot map isn’t original. And that’s just gotten its makers into some trouble.

The makers of the Fortnite Steal the Brainrot map are being sued. By the creators of the original Steal the Brainrot map! That Roblox mode has gotten sick of the Fortnite map makers stealing their content wholesale, and now we’re facing a bit of a weird legal fight. Between two different map creators on various platforms.

What’s going on and does this actually matter for players of either Steal the Brainrot modes?

Fortnite Steal the Brainrot and Roblox

This mode from independent map creators has become incredibly popular lately. With Battle Royale in a real low, an event for Steal the Brainrot meant that it even had more players than the main game briefly. Even on normal days though, it has maintained an impressive player count. Being by far one of the most popular Fortnite modes to play.

The Fortnite Steal the Brainrot map wasn’t entirely a unique mode though. It was based on one in Roblox. And by based on, we mean it was a direct copy. Just trying to port over that same gameplay into Fortnite. This has never been a secret. Creators in Fortnite Creative have pretty much never had much ownership over maps. Popular ones get duplicated.

Since Fortnite took a more platform approach to gameplay, the average experience for a player might have changed. These kinds of modes didn’t use to be a big deal. But with Epic trying to ape the Roblox style of play, hit maps like Steal the Brainrot get pushed hard. It’s difficult to avoid them. And it seems those who originated the game mode have taken notice.

Fortnite Steal the Brainrot Map Creators are Being Sued

A big deal for fans of silly Fortnite Creative modes might get a bad surprise soon, with the Fortnite Steal the Brainrot map creators being sued. There’s no secret code for the map for that.

The developers behind the Roblox mode that originated it has taken legal action against the Fortnite clone. They’re alleging that the Fortnite mode steals its content. And that the similarities are the result of a conscious decisions. Specifically, that it was motivated by the money they could earn in the Fortnite map system. Epic now pays map makers, which for one as big of a hit as Fortnite Steal the Brainrot, is a substantial amount of money.

Will the Mode Stay Up?

The big question was the lawsuit is if the game mode will stay up. Right now, there’s no way to know long term. But a legal case will probably take a while. In the meantime, it’s really up to the map creators and Epic if they want to leave the Fortnite Steal the Brainrot up or not, or even exclude it from the Creator program until things are settled. But it’s most likely that Epic will do nothing to avoid getting involved in this legal fight, and let the two map creators settle things.

This does highlight some of the dangers behind the approach to Fortnite right now. Map creators take whatever works and copy it. Originality isn’t valued very highly. With enough money getting paid, there’s plenty of motivation for creators to just barley innovate on a popular map and try to capture part of their player base. Fortnite has already banned maps using copyrighted material. But weather a different game on a platform violates that is a bit more complicated.