‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ developer is suing Epic Games over ‘Fortnite’

Following the huge success ofPlayerUnknown’s Battlegroundsin 2017, Epic Games managed to cash in on the battle royale craze with its own game,Fortnite, which was updated with its own free-to-play multiplayer mode. The mode has madeFortnitethe biggest game in the world — and now the studio behindPlayerUnknown’s Battlegroundshas filed a lawsuit against its developer claiming copyright infringement.

According toThe Korea Times, PUBG Corp. filed an injunction against Epic Games Korea with the Seoul Central District Court in January. It’s not stated which particular elements ofFortnitethe company takes issue with, but the basic structures of the two games — and most battle royale games — is the same. A hundred players are dropped onto a large piece of land, and the playable area is continuously shrunk, killing those who stay outside. As players fight each other, one is left standing and declared the victor.

This type of game certainly gained a large boost in popularity with the success ofPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but the game didn’t originate the ideas. Similar games such asThe Cullinghave been released in the past, and “PlayerUnknown” developer Brendan Greene built the basic framework for his game through mods inArma 3andDayZ. This hasn’t stopped PUBG Corp. from filing other suits against battle royale developers, including Chinese mobile company NetEase. A lawsuit, filed in Northern California’s U.S. District Court,mentions the similar structurebetweenBattlegroundsand NetEase’s own games, as well as “the use of cookware as a weapon or armor.”

Fortniteand games likeGears of Warhave been massive successes for Epic Games (if you’re just getting started, check out our list ofFortnite tips and tricks), but the company is also known for creating the Unreal game engine. This happens to be the enginePlayerUnknown’s Battlegroundsuses on PC, Xbox, and mobile platforms.Fortnitehas managed to pull insignificantly more cashthrough microtransactions thanPUBG Mobile, and this might not just be limited to the former game’s popularity —Fortniteon iOS is cross-platform compatible with PC, Mac, and consoles, whilePUBG Mobilecan only be played with other mobile players. The game’s player-base hasalso dropped on PC, however, with about half of the players it had at the beginning of 2018.