Law Order
PUBG Corp. and Epic Games
"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" vs "Fortnite."
- The company behind "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" has dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against the creators of "Fortnite," Bloomberg reports.
- PUBG filed the lawsuit against Epic Games based on the same reason the two games became overnight successes: The wildly popular "battle-royale" type gameplay.
- It followed PUBG filling an injunction against Epic Games in January, claiming that the company copied its user interface and weapon items.
- The two companies do have things in common, not least the same investor.
The creators of one of the biggest games this past year has dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against Epic Games, the North Carolina-based company behind the smash-hit "Fortnite," according to Bloomberg.
PUBG withdrew from its claim and the case is reportedly closed. South Korea-based PUBG Corp. alleged in its suit that Epic Games copied its intellectual property to create "Fortnite." PUBG's claim, which was directed against Epic Games' South Korean offices, was filed in South Korea.
Bluehole, the company behind PUBG, was not available for comment.
The lawsuit, which was first reported on last month, was based on the same reason the two games became overnight successes: The wildly popular "battle-royale" type gameplay that pits 100 players against each other until one player or team is left standing.
PUBG's lawsuit was criticized by people who suggested it was an overreaching claim - the concept of copyrighting a gameplay, such as "capture-the-flag," brings into question the game's originality, and a ruling on the issue could have set a wide precedent for future games.
"Epic Games references 'PUBG' in the promotion of 'Fortnite' to their community and in communications with the press," Bluehole vice president and executive producer Chang Han Kim said in the press release in September 2017. "This was never discussed with us and we don't feel that it's right."
While PUBG was released as an early-access on Steam in March 2017. Epic Games launched Fortnite in July 2017 and rolled out its battle royale mode in September.
PUBG originally filed an injunction against Epic Games in January this year, claiming that the company had copied its user interface and weapon items, according to the BBC.
PUBG and Epic Games have things in common
But the two companies do have things in common. PUBG utilized Epic Games' Unreal Engine technology for its game, and both companies share the same mutual investor: Chinese holding company Tencent.
Although Fortnite is a free-to-play game with in-game transactions, PUBG's price ranges from $19.99 on PC, to $29.99 on Xbox.
Fortnite boasts an estimated 125 million players and was recently released on Nintendo Switch, which amassed over 2 million downloads within 24 hours of its release.
PUBG on the other hand, may be experiencing a declining player base on the PC - the game reportedly peaked in January with 3.2 million concurrent players on Steam, and eventually tapered down to 1.7 million concurrent players in June. Still, the game has put up impressive sales numbers for the PC with around 30 million lifetime sales, totalling about $1 billion in one year.