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Big companies sue each other all the time and video game industry giants are no exception. This time, it’s the publisher of hugely popular online shooter “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)” that is threatening to sue the studio behind the survival simulator, “Fortnite.” Bluehole is basically accusing Epic Games of copying “PUBG’s” format with “Fortnite’s” Battle Royale mode.
As Forbes notes, Bluehole is a relatively new addition to the list of successful companies in the industry, and yet it is already making bold threats. Unfortunately for the publisher, it’s the kind of threats that anyone who has ever paid attention to video games can see through quite easily.
For some context, the developers of “PUBG” and Epic Games actually collaborated on some level in creating the game. Aside from the fact that the online shooter uses the Unreal Engine, which is owned by Epic Games, the two sides also worked together in ironing out the details in the final product.
As such, it’s not unreasonable to say that the creators of “Fortnite” had a lot of access to “PUBG’s” architecture. Chang Han Kim, vice-president at Bluehole said as much in the press release that the company put out.
“We’ve had an ongoing relationship with Epic Games throughout PUBG’s development as they are the creators of UE4, the engine we licensed for the game,” Kim said. “After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing the gameplay for ourselves, we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.”
In later clarifications, Kim said that the problem wasn’t with the Battle Royale aspect itself, but rather with Epic Games itself, Game Rant reports. It would seem that the fact that the two companies worked together on developing “PUBG” made “Fortnite’s” own free-for-all system something of a betrayal. There’s also the matter of Epic Games using “PUBG” in the promotional materials of “Fortnite.”
Unfortunately for Bluehole, it really doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on in this situation since its Battle Royale mode isn’t even all that original. At this point, Battle Royale is more of a game category than it is a unique system for a particular game. “PUBG” might be the most popular title under this category, but it’s still one of several that can claim to have Battle Royale game mechanics.
