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PUBG and Epic Games, Makers of Two of the World's Most Popular Video Games, Set To Battle in Court (bloomberg.com)
PUBG, an affiliate of South Korean studio Bluehole, is suing the Korean unit of North Carolina-based Epic Games, arguing that its smash hit Fortnite copies many of the characteristics of its own PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The suit, alleging copyright infringement, was filed in South Korea. From a report: PUBG introduced its game last year and it became a huge hit as players embraced the Hunger Games-style concept in which 100 players race to kill each other until there's a sole survivor. But the game's features have been embraced by rivals, prompting earlier legal action. Fortnite has a similar concept of 100 people competing with each other, but differs by letting players build fortifications similar to Minecraft and using more cartoon-like graphics aimed at younger players "This is a measure to protect our copyrights," PUBG said, declining to provide further details. Epic Games didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The two companies have a complicated relationship. Epic Games provides PUBG with its Unreal Engine technology, which was used to create PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The software is instrumental in building games and is the industry-standard for professional games developers. Both companies are also partly owned by Tencent Holdings, China's internet giant.
I think you meant to say 'Battle Royale'..
Unless they think they can patent a genre this'll end badly, especially as they are trying to jump back on the fortnite wagon with stuff like weapon skins, except cs:go was in before both of them with that, will they then have to pay to valve who will have to pay on to rainbow six for the multinational elite law enforcement aspect until it all comes back to doom who quitely pay on to maze war or something?
Ask silicon knights how suing epic for something stupid goes.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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PUBG did certainly not come up with that game concept, the DayZ mod did it in ARMA 2 back in 2013.
They are the ones who should start lawsuits if anyone.
If PUBG actually wins this case it would be embarassing that we can have such shitty copyright laws IMO.
If only they were owned by Disney.
You know you suck at Fortnite Battle Royals when Duke Nukem chimes in to tell you that you suck.
Rust did most of it first. Hello.
Even the DayZ mod got its ideas from a popular minecraft mod. And these guys know it
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I've tried both games.
My experience with PUBG can basically be summed up as bad networking performance, aimbotters, and people just generally acting like dicks and making a lot of noise.
My experience with Fortnite was a bit more enjoyable. It seemed to run a lot smoother on my system, I didn't encounter any obvious aimbotters (though I suspected a few players may have been cheating), and while the community seemed to contain more than a few angry people, they weren't actively going out of their way to hurl verbal diarrhea in my general direction.
I can't remember much of my time spent in PUBG. All in all, it was a very forgettable experience. Maybe I just didn't play long enough to experience the "epic" situations that tend to accumulate as the game gets down to the last 10 players. I do remember having some fun in Fornite though, if not because of the hilariously stupid base building competitions that people can get into. It certainly wasn't as serious as PUBG, but I don't really care about that when I'm just trying to have fun.
I haven't heard anything good about the guys behind PUBG though. They seem to be running around suing people for random stuff including the use of frying pans (which they claim is a PUBG exclusive thing, despite the fact Smash Bros has had that for years) and generally ripping off their precious "idea". It kinda feels like they're just angry they screwed up their own game and now other people have come along and done it better.
I do remember some games that had a similar gamemod(e) long before Greene made his arma mod. IIRC There was even a minecraft mod before that.
EFFING what?! You can't sue another game dev because their game is similar. This isn't Apple vs Samsung with Apple's complete bullshit yet somehow enforceable claim that they invented designs (which were around for 10 years before they even made a phone, ipod, or tablet). If you could sue other game devs because their game had "many of the same characteristics", there literally wouldn't be other game developers. The gaming industry relies entirely on reiteration and trends and "copies". Ever heard of 4X? RTS? Castelroids? Platformers? Battle racer? Visual novel? Third person shooter? These games exist as a genre because they can re-use the same characteristics across developers and IPs. That's 99% of all successful games. And 99.9% of basically all indie games.
Will the court shrink as time goes on? With the last lawyer standing getting a bonus?
I'd be much more worried about Overwatch vs Team Fortress 2 in that case.
Pretty much the same game, different graphics.
all these peeps have lotsa cash already, affluent people are so lame, so selfish, so unethical, rip off kids and spend it on lawyers over a hissy fit ... it's no wonder the whole world's going to shit
1) Yes, growing up we called this a Battle Royal, as mentioned above.
2) Wasn't there a rather popular Minecraft mod called "Hunger Games"
???
But did it support a 100 or more users?
You see, it clearly is now a wholly new patentable game because obviously supporting more users makes it TOTALLY different.
USPO - Oh, wow...you're totally right. Patent granted.
Do you get a Monopoly on rules of play when you make say, a board game?
They own many properties which are derivative of other prior games. This is a pandora box.
This is so abysmally stupid I can hardly believe it. PUBG is basically a better asset flip. The only thing that it has going is a neat new game mechanic and a reason to multiplay on a larger map. Other than that there is zilch innovation in the game. PUBG is going to lose big time. Indie Game critic Jim Sterling did a perfect analysis of this situation.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
PUBG uses the Unreal Engine, which is owned and maintained by Epic. They could revoke their license on the platform and PUBG would be SOL. Perhaps they're looking for a huge payday before shutting the game down because they're not getting any new players.
That Hunger Games Minecraft mod you keep referencing came out like 7 months after DayZ was released.
So, the Everquest arena on a bigger scale, but now with forts. How novel.
If I understand correctly game ideas cannot be copyrighted in the USA. No idea about South Korea
https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.pdf
Call of Duty 4 is getting a battle royale mode.
the heavy focus on exploring for gear in a collapsing play area is fairly recent.
4-player Super Bomberman and Bomberman 64, published by Hudson Soft, were around in the 1990s. Both had last man standing, exploring for gear (bomb and flame powerups), and a collapsing play area once less than a minute remained in a 2-minute match. But I'll grant that in the timescale of the law in question, which reaches back to 1923, video games themselves are "fairly recent."
A U.S. patent and a Korean patent can arise from an application pursuant to the Patent Cooperation Treaty of 1970. This establishes, among other things, a filing date and a preliminary search for prior art on which national patent examiners can rely, though each member country has the authority to grant a patent or not.
The legal systems around the world has failed The People. We as civilized citizens must hold the companies accountable and more importantly the legal staff. The top 50 lawyers from each company shall be placed in an arena with a variety of weapons. If there are not 50 lawyers, then the top executives starting at the CEO shall fill out to meet the 50. The last company representative breathing shall have their companies position upheld.
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
Glad i never bought this game. Know what else copies each other? Vehicles with 4 wheels, shoes with laces, buildings with elevators, restaurants with plates, and so on.
I think it was in April that PUBG sued NetEase for two mobile games for copyright infringement. This copyright lawyer, Leonard French goes over that suit and discusses elements of it. While French talks about general concepts of copyright infringement like "substantially similar" requirements he also talks about specific things like PUBG's claim that NetEase "copied" guns which were real world guns is problematic as you'd expect a Tommy gun to look like all other Tommy guns.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
>The legal systems around the world has failed
For the most part, it is the understanding of the public that has failed. This concept that every legal system in the world has failed because you don't understand them is the cry of a small mind. For example, BlueHole can file any suit they like, whether they are immediately dismissed, or have other failure outcomes is entirely a different story. If you remove freedom to file, you remove freedom of action and speech. You let everyone file, and you dismiss the frivolous claims quickly.
isn't this whole game basicly just a last man standing game? most of the old FPS's had a game mode called last man standing that does the same thing. you get one life and the last person thats still alive is the winner. PUGB didn't even come up with the winner winner chiken dinner as thats been around for ever.
This is dumb, you can't copyright a game genre, even if you invent it. Look at DOTA when it was a warcraft 3 mod, various creators and fast-followers making full on games, eventually blizz makes their own. And they all co-exist and help create an even healthier genre, nobody had to sue anyone. Want to 'own' Battle Royale? Deliver, and continue to deliver, the best implementation of it.
It's one of the most boring games of all time. Now we know the creators are also whiny losers who can't stand competition and need a government bailout.
Both games suck really fast.
And their players flood the world with the stupidest social media posts ever.
Almost as bad as the pokemon ijits.
Or more specifically, "Last Man Standing, but with 100 people." Your game isn't even original to begin with here.
I hate it when organizations and entities I like do incredibly shitty things. Have fun hanging out with Lars Ulrich, I guess.
Dean Hall made that mod. Not Anybody at pubg.
This seems to be a contest in this. Fortnite does win.
Is this what we had hoped for in games? I am an ole timer here it seems so I don't care for it too much.
Fortnight is playing a dangerous game though. It is marketed for kids, even fly in on school buses. I seem to remember that parents are not responsible for purchases their kids make. At least that happened to Apple with their app store some time ago.
Good thing I am not a parent. Kids are owned by advertisers, because they are stupid, and those that are not often get caught up with their friends persuading them on behalf of the advertisers.
This is such a waste of time.
PUBG who ripped the idea off the Battle Royale movie is suing Fortnite for ripping the idea off them? Lego who ripped the idea for Lego off a British company also sued more recent block makers.
It's hypocrisy which even if it fails scares of competitors and if you get a homeground jury might hand you a win anyway. Lawyers are only too willing to bill and bill and bill along the way.
The true villains in this are the public who keep reelecting senators and congressmen who allow this abuse to continue.
Ps The Hunger Games author claims she didn't know about Battle Royale when she wrote Hunger Games. I hope one day a store video emerges of her leaving Blockbuster with it tucked under her arm.
Except making a mod for Arma gives Bohemia Interactive the rights to that idea. I released a few mods for A2 and A3 and their tools flat out tell you this. You can claim partial ownership at best.