Epic Games Will Now Take Action Against Fortnite "Clout Farmers"

As part of a competitive update for the ongoing Chapter 2 - Season 4 of Fortnite, Epic Games has indicated that it will now take action not only against folks caught actually cheating but those that claim to have been cheating or previously caught cheating. Basically, in the company's eyes, claiming to be cheating or having been banned results in extra work that is then not spent on actual cheaters. Epic Games even references this as "clout farming," as players sometimes use this as a sort of brag despite not having actually done anything.

"This season, we will now be taking action against anyone who falsely promotes themselves as a banned or cheating player," the recent update reads. "This false information gets in the way of real investigations that action true bad actors. It also goes against the spirit of the game and Fortnite competition, which has no place within the competitive Fortnite community."

It's unclear just how strenuous Epic Games is going to be about the above, however. "Actions" in terms of consequences in Fortnite can range from anything like a warning to a permanent account ban with further strikes obviously upping the punishment as necessary. Whatever the case, folks claiming to be cheating or having once been banned should lessen significantly given that there are now, you know, actual stakes to that claim.

Fortnite is currently available on most major platforms, but the iOS version, specifically, has hit a snag after Epic Games intentionally set off a chain of events that caused it to be removed from the App Store. The legal fight over that decision is ongoing, but the short version is: nobody's playing Chapter 2 - Season 4 on an iPhone right now. Fortnite Chapter 2 - Season 4, which is a canonical Marvel Comics crossover, is currently ongoing. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Fortnite right here.

What do you think of the new competitive update? Are you playing the current season of Fortnite? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!