Prince Harry Under Fire After Claiming Video Game ‘Fortnite’ Is Addictive
Creators of the video game Fortnite have criticized Prince Harry, saying he was wrong to call the game addictive and suggesting he might not understand it.
Matthew Weissinger, marketing executive for Epic Games, and Canon Pence, chief counsel for the company, appeared before Parliament on Wednesday and defended the game against claims that it is addictive.
Those claims were spearheaded by Prince Harry, who in April said that the game should be banned because it was created to make people addicts and keep them in front of a computer for as long as possible, The Sun reported. The duke was speaking on mental health during a visit to the YMCA in South Ealing when he made the remarks, Sky News reported.
Pence, responding to questions from a Commons committee, said he was “taken aback” by Harry’s remarks.
When asked if he believed Harry was wrong or had misunderstood the game, Pence said yes.
“The statements made could not be further from the truth in our designs and philosophy and multi-decade approach to developing a long-term and sustainable relationship with our audience,” he said.
“It’s really always been our effort and intent to create a fun, fair, flexible, engaging and generous form of interactive entertainment for our audience. And so I feel like a statement that suggests that there was some sort of nefarious attempt to extract short-term profit is a real mischaracterization,” he said, according to Sky News.
https://t.co/mp1qBdSUGK lllll The makers of Fortnite have rejected Prince Harry's comments about the popular game being "created to addict" its players.
— Sky News Feed ? (@SkyNewsFeed) June 19, 2019
Parliament also questioned the company’s practice of making money off of players in the game. The Sun reported that the company made more money in 2018 from Fortnite than any other computer game in history, with Epic earning an estimated $2.4 billion. The game has made almost $4 billion in total.
The World Health Organization recently brought attention to gaming disorder when it recognized it as a real affliction that involved similar characteristics as other addictions. Impaired control over gaming, making playing games a priority over other activities, and an escalation of gaming despite negative consequences are symptoms of the disorder, The Sun reported. For a medical diagnosis, the behavior must be so severe that it results in significant impairment of personal, family, social, and other areas as well as being an ongoing problem for at least 12 months.
While gaming companies would rather not be known as companies creating addicts, gaming addiction is a struggle for some people. The Sun reported that children as young as 11 are reportedly being treated for the disorder.
