Popular digital artist Deb JJ Lee has alleged that Epic Games tried to pay her only $4400 AUD for a Fortnite illustration and copyright. 

Popular digital artist Deb JJ Lee has alleged that Epic Games offered to pay her only $3k USD ($4400 AUD approximately) for a Fortnite illustration and the subsequent copyright to use it. Lee took to Twitter, and later to Tiktok to explain how she tried negotiating with the gaming giant – stressing that the requirements were disproportionate to the money offered – but was unsuccessful and had to decline. 

“I think it’s hilarious that Fortnite, which earned $6b in revenue in 2021, asked me to do an entire illustration with all copyright for $3k.” Lee tweeted. She then went on to attach a screenshot of her reply to allegedly Epic Games, where she can be seen declining the project. 

“Okay, so with the budget given, it doesn’t feel ethical to take this project – the time it would take for a WFH assignment from such a high-earning game where I can’t even sell prints would barely leave me with a living wage.” she writes in the email. 

Lee’s claims happen to have ruffled feathers in the game’s die-hard fan community. Shortly after her tweets went viral, she was flooded with everything from hate mail to questions about why she did not negotiate. She was quick to shut trolls down, however. 

“Some people are yelling at me for not negotiating, but I actually did negotiate,” Lee said in a Tiktok video. “I said that if you want to buy out the rights, if you want to be able to use this image however you want, whatever you want, you have to pay me $15k USD ($22k AUD approximately).” 

According to Lee, Epic Games’ offered price of $3k might have been reasonable if only she were allowed to sell prints – but since they want full copyright, she thought a quote of $15k USD was ‘reasonable.’ 

In another video, she also called out trolls commenting that she should be grateful about Epic Games reaching out in the first place. Posting a screenshot from the Graphic Artists Guild for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, she said: “The prices for illustrations and art hasn’t risen with inflation for the last hundred years… $2000 in 1935 can get you a house. $2000 now, which is still the same price, will not get me a place ticket to see my grandparents in Korea.”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine