Fortnite Unreal Editor, aka Creative 2.0, made its debut a few days ago, and Team Fortnite has issued strict notice to creators who will be recreating older maps in the game.
Fortnite players are as excited about the return of older POIs as they are about the launch of new POIs. As a result, it wasn’t really surprising to see the community looking forward to recreating older maps in the new Creative mode. However, Team Fortnite has made it clear that creators cannot make older maps in the game unless it is the Chapter 1 map.
In a blog post (via ShiinaBR), Epic Games states that all the maps that we have seen so far in the various Chapters, are Epic’s intellectual property. Thus, it counts as unsolicited use of others’ copyrighted IP which is against Fortnite’s EULA and Island Creator Rules. However, Team Fortnite has given some leeway to creators, as it has allowed them to remake the Chapter 1 maps. But, as you might have expected, there is a catch. The maps built based on the Chapter 1 maps will be ineligible for monetization, just like the ones built using the “Battle Royale Island” starter island.
A day after this statement was released, Team Fortnite further reiterated its stance, this time focusing on copyrighted material in general, and not just Epic’s intellectual property. It states that creators who create content that violates the rule in the Unreal Editor ” will face content takedowns and enforcement actions, up to and including permanent account bans.” Notably, this rule extends to sharing content on social media as well, and creators will be held accountable even if they did not intend to publish it in Fortnite.
While fans were excited to see Creative 2.0 release after such a long wait, Epic’s content restrictions are something that hasn’t been received well by the community. In particular, not being allowed to recreate past iterations of the maps is something fans aren’t too happy about, but it does make sense to some extent given that Fortnite has frequently collaborated with leading third-party IPs for its POIs. It remains to be seen how much Epic’s policies affect creators, including indie studio Atlas Creative, who is already working on remaking the Chapter 1 map in Creative 2.0.
