Online, both PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Fortnite allow players to enjoy a battle royale. But the two studios behind those games are now gearing up for a battle royale in court.
PUBG is developed by Korean developer PUBG Corporation, which is a subsidiary of publisher Bluehole. Fortnite is developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly as well as being published by Epic. PUBG Corp. has now filed a lawsuit against Epic Games alleging copyright infringement and asking for an injunction.
PUBG first appeared back in March 2017 offering player-vs-player gameplay where one hundred players fight it out until only one is left alive. This is what is known as a battle royale. It proved extremely popular. Fortnite on the other hand, can have its development tracked back as far as 2011, but it didn't release until July 2017. Even then, it only offered a "Save the World" mode where players co-operated in a sandbox survival game, exploring the world, scavenging items, as well as crafting, building, and fighting.
As The Korea Times reports, the situation changed in September last year when Epic Games added a free-to-play Battle Royale mode to Fortnite. Bluehole immediately saw the similarities, stating that both the core elements and user interface were very similar to PUBG. Things were further complicated as PUBG is developed using the Unreal Engine, which is owned by Epic.
By January, Bluehole and PUBG Corporation had decided to take action and filed a lawsuit in Korea in order to protect their copyright. It looks as though the Seoul District Court will have to determine whether the user interface and gameplay elements used in Fortnite's Battle Royale mode do in fact violate the copyright of PUBG.
The stakes are huge. As the BBC points out, Fortnite broke a world record in February by having 3.4 million people playing Fortnite at once. PUBG held the existing record of 3.3 million. Over 40 million copies of PUBG have been sold through Steam, with a further four million copies sold on consoles. Sales have generated around $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, Fortnite continues to grow in popularity and transactions within the game are estimated to generate $200 million a month.