PUBG Corp. Suing 'Fortnite' Developer Epic Games For Copyright Infringement

PUBG Corp., the studio behind “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” is suing “Fortnite” developer Epic Games for copyright infringement. Both games feature the highly popular Battle Royale game mode, which lets 100 players jump into a map and fight to the last man standing.

The lawsuit was filed by PUBG Corp. back in January, but it was only made public this past weekend, according to The Korea Times. PUBG Corp. claims that the Battle Royale mode in “Fortnite” copies the in-game interface and items in its own game. “This is a measure to protect our copyrights,” PUBG Corp. told Bloomberg. Epic Games has yet to provide an official statement related to the matter.

“PUBG” is based on an “Arma 3” mod that lets 100 players drop into a massive map with the goal of killing all the other opponents to be the sole survivor. “PUBG” was released in March 2017 for the PC, and later for the Xbox One, and it quickly gained a huge following in the gaming community with millions of players worldwide. Because of the popularity of “PUBG,” the Battle Royale style of online multiplayer has become quite popular and many have tried to replicate the success of “PUBG.”

The Battle Royale mode for “Fortnite” was launched in September 2017 for the PC, PlayStation and the Xbox as a free-to-play game mode. The game was able to attract 40 million players worldwide. Although the Battle Royale mode in “Fortnite” is very similar to “PUBG,” it has one distinct difference. In “Fortnite” Battle Royale, players are able to build forts and craft items in order to defend themselves from incoming opponents, as pointed out by Polygon. This is something that “PUBG” still lacks.

The popularity of “Fortnite” continues to grow and it’s currently the most watched game on Twitch with 187,000 viewers this month, according to TwitchMetrics. Meanwhile, the popularity of “PUBG” is dwindling as it only has 52,000 viewers on Twitch this month. The popularity of “Fortnite” may have also been accelerated this past couple of months since Epic Games launched the iOS version of the game back in March.

Epic Games and PUBG Corp. also has a bit of a complicated relationship beyond the lawsuit. PUBG used Unreal Engine to create“PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.” Unreal Engine is developed and maintained by Epic Games. The two companies are also partly owned by Tencent Holdings, China’s largest internet and technology company.