It's using "Fortnite" as a synecdoche for Epic Games, because "I have to give an age verification company owned by Epic Games my passport to use Bluesky" isn't quite as effective at revving the outrage engines, even if it has the benefit of being true. Personally, I don't think people who are willing to do that are showing themselves to be trustworthy but you might feel differently.

It is pretty funny how Epic Games is a platform empire now such that they provide an authentication system used beyond gaming.

'Kids Web Services' is a subsidiary of Epic, the makers of Fortnite.

https://www.kidswebservices.com/

It says it’s a subsidiary of Epic Games, and Epic owns Fortnite. Saying it’s Fortnite feels like a very clickbait way to frame it.

By a verification service owned by epic games apparently. So not fortnite but its not a super stretch.

It's as much of a stretch as describing using an Azure service as "I have to use Halo" or AWS as "I have to use Rings of Power."

No, Fortnite is/was directly made by Epic Games and is their most well known product/service.

Better analogies would be Azure as "I have to use Windows" or AWS as "I have to use the Amazon store", which sound a lot less ridiculous than your analogies.

The good faith interpretation is that if the fortnite division had any reason to benefit from that passport info, they would be able to get it. That's not a super stretch.

So it's not fortnite at all. It's something owned by the same company that happens to also own fortnite. That is actually a huge stretch.

Imagine if I said "I have to pilot a 747 just to change the temperature of my house" (because Honeywell makes both passenger jet avionics and thermostats).

First paragraph- "a subsidiary of the video game company that makes Fortnite"

It says so in the first paragraph that it's a subsidiary of Epic Games that does verification.

Google asked for my passport to pay for some ridiculous <$1 payment (I refused). So I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is was legit.

Online companies have bent over and stuck their own heads up their own asses ... and they'll call it progress, good UX and security.

Fuck em (generally speaking).