Epic Games Claims Ownership Over Jazz Jackrabbit in Fortnite Legal Tussle With Gears of War Creator

Cliff Bleszinski, longtime Epic Games developer and the renowned designer of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, hit a legal wall when trying to secure the rights to one of his very first game characters, Jazz Jackrabbit, from his former employer.

Bleszinski says he created Jazz Jackrabbit when he was about 17. He turned the character into the star of one of his very first video games, which he developed and released in 1994 after he joined Epic in 1992. Jazz became Epic’s biggest hit at the time. Now, though, after Epic added Jazz to Fortnite as a Sprite in Chapter 7, Season 4 earlier this year, Bleszinski expressed disappointment at being shut out of his character by Epic after a legal back-and-forth.

“After lawyering up Epic claims they fully own the rights to Jazz Jackrabbit and won’t back down in spite of not having any paperwork to prove it (nor do I) in spite of the fact that they still pay me from sales of it on GoG (which means paperwork exists somewhere) and are still happy to monetize him in [Fortnite],” Bleszinski posted on his X account. “So, if I get around to doing a new one expect the “spiritual sequel” route. Business is business, I suppose. My first sketches from high school here. Hell, must have been 17 when I doodled these.” Here they are:

Bleszinski issued a statement to IGN: “Jazz was my first hit and will always have a spot in my heart. When I signed the contract with Epic I was a teenager and just happy to be making games and those documents have been lost to the sands of time. That said, I’m still somehow getting the occasional check from GoG.com that Epic is honoring, which seems to indicate that paperwork exists somewhere. I’m thankful to be paid on work I did 30+ years ago, however apart from random backpack cameos in Fortnite I was hoping I could see to a proper revival of Jazz, either by my own hand or with a trusted partner. I pursued the proper legal path which ultimately led to a dead end – ‘rights hell.’ At the end of the day business is business and should I pursue anything Jazz-like in the future it would have to be in the ‘spiritual successor’ category. I’m still convinced no one has truly cracked the code of arcadey first-person platforming!”

Jazz Jackrabbit isn’t the only one of Bleszinski’s creations to be active after a long hiatus lately. The Gears of War franchise returned to Xbox consoles last month with the excellent Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel to Bleszinski’s 2006 original game. E-Day was the first new Gears game since 2019’s Gears 5.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.