The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will soon make payments totaling more than $72 million to players who were allegedly “tricked” by Fortnite developer Epic Games – and more are on the way.

The organization shared its plans to refund players affected by discovered unfair microtransaction practices a message on his website. The money is included in a settlement originally announced in late 2022. As the post explains, Epic had to pay $245 million at the time to resolve allegations that it “used design tactics called dark patterns to trick players into doing undesirable things.” Purchases allowed children to to collect unauthorized charges without parental intervention, and some users who disputed unauthorized charges were prevented from accessing their purchased content.”

The FTC says it is distributing 629,344 payments today and will send additional payments “at a later date.” The average payment is $114 and is made via PayPal and cashier’s checks. Consumers previously involved in settlement payouts chose their preferred payment method when submitting a claim form and have 30 days to clear payments made through PayPal and 60 days to cash their checks. If you feel affected, you can follow Click this link to submit an application form.

We reported on the fines Epic had been ordered to pay when it was announced in December 2022. In addition to the aforementioned $245 million in Dark Patterns-related refunds, the Fortnite developer was also fined $275 million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection (COPPA) rule, bringing the total to equivalent to more than $520 million.

“Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is the Commission’s top priority,” FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan said at the time, “and these enforcement actions make it clear to companies that the FTC cracks down on these illegal practices.”

At the time of the FTC’s decision, Epic released its own statement on the matter. In the message published on its websiteThe company promised to leave “longstanding industry practices” behind.

“We share the underlying principles of fairness, transparency, and privacy that the FTC enforces, and the practices cited in the FTC’s complaints are inconsistent with how Fortnite operates,” Epic said. “We will continue to be transparent about what players can expect when making purchases, ensure cancellations and refunds are easy, and put safeguards in place to help keep our ecosystem safe and entertaining for viewers of all ages.”

Despite heavy fines from the FTC, Epic is moving forward with providing more Fortnite content to its millions of fans. The company was founded just last week Fortnite OGa version of its battle royale experience that aims to revive an early version of the experience. Competitive mode from a first person perspective Fortnite Ballistic will be released in Early Access on December 11, 2024.

Michael Cripe is a freelancer at IGN. He began writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at media outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP and Gameranx.

Be sure to follow him on Twitter @MikeCripe.