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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)

Posted by msmash on from the may-the-best-one-wins dept.

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.

6 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Hunger games? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think you meant to say 'Battle Royale'..

    1. Re: Hunger games? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's also pretty clear that The Hunger Games got its idea from Battle Royale

    2. Re:Hunger games? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      There is shrinking territory: forbidden zones where if you linger, your collar goes boom...and as time goes on, more are added.

  2. Can you steal something that is already stolen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    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.

  3. Been around since Super Bomberman by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    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."

  4. Not the first time PUBG has sued for copyright by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.