Tuesday, May 29th 2018
Epic Games Sued by PUBG Corp Over "Fortnite" Battle Royale Mode
Epic Games has been dragged to court by PUBG Corporation, developer of "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" (PUBG) over "copyright infringement" and "plagiarism" in its smash-hit online multiplayer game "Fortnite." PUBG dominated PC gaming in 2017, as its South Korea-based developers raked in hundreds of millions of Dollars in revenues, having sold over 45 million copies of the game. When it released in 2017, "Fotnite" wasn't anywhere near as popular as PUBG, since it only included a tower-defense mode dubbed "Save the World." The game's fortunes turned around when Epic Games introduced the "Battle Royale" mode, which is an open-world free-for-all (FFA). PUBG has a problem with that.
In its complaint, PUBG Corp alleges that "Fortnite" Battle Royale mode copies not just PUBG's gameplay, but also its USP of dropping players in arenas empty-handed, and making them scout out weapons and items so they could both survive and hunt down others. The complaint also includes allegations that the user-interface (UI) is heavily borrowed from that of PUBG. Interestingly, PUBG itself has been inspired by Japanese film "Batoru Rowaiaru," the title of which loosely transliterates to "Battle Royale." This is a fact the defense could bludgeon PUBG's lawyers with.
Source:
The Korea Times
In its complaint, PUBG Corp alleges that "Fortnite" Battle Royale mode copies not just PUBG's gameplay, but also its USP of dropping players in arenas empty-handed, and making them scout out weapons and items so they could both survive and hunt down others. The complaint also includes allegations that the user-interface (UI) is heavily borrowed from that of PUBG. Interestingly, PUBG itself has been inspired by Japanese film "Batoru Rowaiaru," the title of which loosely transliterates to "Battle Royale." This is a fact the defense could bludgeon PUBG's lawyers with.
63 Comments on Epic Games Sued by PUBG Corp Over "Fortnite" Battle Royale Mode
www.businessinsider.com/pubg-bluehole-studios-sues-fortnite-epic-games-copyright-infringement-claims-2018-5?r=US&IR=T
PUBG is basically suing Epic for copying their "look an feel" and releasing a "similar" product. I'm not familiar with Korean laws, but these claims wouldn't stand in U.S. or EU courts. PUBG Corporation is now conducting the same kind of behavior that Microsoft, Apple, etc. have been conducting in the past.
In any case, this isn't something I'd like to see SK copy from Americans.
If the judge doesn't throw it out I'd be surprised.
Oh well so much for me thinking about playing player unknown battlegrounds I think I'll just to go play fortnite and whatever Unreal Tournament version there is out there now go back to playing Borderlands and OverWatch
If so, it makes sense why Pubg is doing what they're doing. They simply can't compete and are resorting to the last thing they have...which is a long shot itself.
He's also very wrong: it's not a game for everyone just like PUBG isn't a game for everyone. I was interested in Fortnite's original plan (apparently releasing this year some time): a tower defense game sort of like Sanctum. I have zero interest in Fortnite Battle Royale.
I had no idea they did an Infinity War tie in.. that's kind of a franchise in itself that attracts everyone too.
Minecraft is one of many good examples of these manias. Minecraft was just a poor ripoff of another game, but became immensely popular, and it spawned a whole lot of new clones, and variations on the same concept.
But this isn't new, just in the past few years the same thing have happened with Team Fortress 2 causing "everyone" to create their own variant. Before that we had years of MOBA games before DOTA 2 started to dominate, and before that we had years of tower defense games. Those of you who remember the "golden age of PC gaming" might remember the RTS genre spawned by Dune II, quickly followed by Warcraft and C&C, then a truckload of poorly made clones nobody remembers until Starcraft basically killed the genre due to serious design faults.