Teen who threatened to kill Epic Games employees pleads guilty
A South Dakota teenager pled guilty on Monday to charges related to threats he admitted to sending to Fortnite maker Epic Games.
The teenager, Jayden Griffin, was indicted by a grand jury in the United States District Court in South Dakota's Western Division in December 2024 for sending threats between October and November 2024 "to an electronic reporting service utilised by Epic Games," according to court documents reviewed by Game Developer.
On September 16, 2025, Griffin submitted a statement to the court in which he admitted sending messages threatening to "kill employees of the company." Details beyond that description were not available in court records.
Judge Daneta Wollman accepted the plea during a hearing on September 29. The charges against Griffin—for threatening interstate communications—have a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. The court has not yet set a date for sentencing.
Game Developer has reached out to Epic Games for comment.
Harassment and threats against game developers have increased over the past several years, according to reports from companies themselves.
In 2022, Apex Legends maker Respawn Entertainment made a public statement reminding its players of its "zero tolerance policy for threats and the harassment of our developers."
In 2023, a GDC survey found that 91 percent of surveyed developers thought harassment and toxicity towards game developers was an issue—42 percent called it a "very serious issue." Forty percent of surveyed developers responded that they'd personally experienced or witnessed that harassment.
That same year, Unity Technologies was forced to close its office for a couple days after receiving a "credible death threat," which was originally reported as by an employee, however.
Square Enix updated its Group Customer Harassment Policy in 2025 to include language about harassment. Any action that "exceeds socially acceptable behavior or is harmful" will result in Square Enix denying a player service, too.
The Japanese company vowed to take legal action or engage in criminal proceedings against players with "egregious" actions with "malicious intent."
