Epic Games Sued the Fortnite Leaker Who Was Working Inside the Company

Image credit: Epic Games

The Fortnite leaking scene has always been one of gaming's most active underground economies. Accounts like HYPEX and Shiina have spent years building massive audiences by surfacing upcoming skins, collaborations, and season details well before Epic says a word.

Epic has largely lived with it. The company sends the occasional cease-and-desist, tolerates what it cannot shut down, and keeps moving. That uneasy truce, though, apparently has a hard limit.

On March 5, 2026, Epic Games filed a federal lawsuit against Hayden Cohen in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Cohen is identified in the complaint as a former contractor who worked as an Associate Producer through a third-party staffing agency.

In this role, he got access to some of the most sensitive material Epic holds: unannounced collaboration details, partner identities, cosmetic specifics, and release timelines. He then turned around and posted all of it on social media.

Cohen operated under the aliases "AdiraFN" on Discord and "AdiraFNInfo" on X. Both accounts have since been deactivated.

Epic provides some examples of leaks in the filing.

• On January 6, 2026, Cohen posted details about the South Park collaboration two days before the official announcement.

• On January 13, Cohen posted that the Solo Leveling collaboration was "confirmed coming soon" and would arrive "likely only 1 month more after a very long wait." Epic did not officially announce that partnership until February 18.

The account also posted about upcoming collaborations with Kingdom Hearts, Ben 10, and Game of Thrones that have not yet been announced.

"At the time Defendant disclosed this information, the collaborations had not been publicly announced by Epic or its partners. Defendant’s leaks were only possible because he abused the access he was granted to this information as part of his work for Epic and willfully disregarded his obligations to keep the information confidential."

The complaint alleges Cohen did all of this "to increase his social media clout." Epic is pursuing claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, the North Carolina Trade Secrets Protection Act, breach of contract, and North Carolina's unfair competition statute.

What makes this case different from the broader leaker ecosystem is exactly what Epic keeps hammering on throughout the filing. This was not someone data-mining public game builds. It was not someone piecing together clues from patch notes or promotional imagery. Cohen had direct access to Epic's internal systems, partner communications, and confidential roadmap information because he was employed to work on it. The complaint states plainly that the leaked information "could not have been obtained through any legitimate means and was not otherwise available to the public."

Epic also argues the harm runs deeper than embarrassment. Partner trust is a core part of how Fortnite sustains itself. Many of these collaborations are deliberately timed to align with a film release, a television premiere, or a major brand moment. When those details surface weeks early, the partner's own announcement strategy gets undercut. Epic says Cohen's leaks "forced" partners "to reallocate resources to urgently address the leaks" and damaged relationships that Epic relies on to keep the collaboration pipeline open.

"When that information is leaked prematurely, it erodes the partner’s trust in Epic and jeopardizes Epic’s ability to secure future collaborations both with that partner and other potential partners."

On February 20, 2026, Epic sent a cease-and-desist demanding Cohen stop all unauthorized disclosures, hand over any devices used to access Epic's systems, and identify anyone he had shared the information with. The complaint was filed less than two weeks later, with Epic noting Cohen had "failed to fully comply" with those demands.