Fortnite is Being Sued By PUBG in Korean Court
By Zac Cameron ·
Just when it seemed as though everything had settled down between these two titans of the Battle Royale genre, the PUBG team is taking Epic Games to court in Korea over copyright violations.
A news article from The Korean Times has indicated that the PUBG team, operating under developer Bluehole, has filed a lawsuit in Korea against Fortnite developer Epic Games, citing copyright violations and requesting the court examine whether Fortnite has copied PUBG in its Battle Royale mode.
An official from the developer noted that the company filed an injunction last Friday, and explained that “We filed the suit to protect our copyright in January.” The official went on to explain that they found it regrettable that Epic Games, which was a partner of Bluehole, had released a similar game.
The timing of this move seems to coincide with the planned expansion of Fortnite into the Korean market, in what would likely be a blow to the player base of PUBG. Reactions to the news on Reddit seem to point to the almost futile nature of the lawsuit, with user WestSideDerp stating “Fortnite borrowed as much of PUBG as PUBG borrowed from H1Z1 and DayZ. Surely the court case wouldn't hold. I imagine this is for publicity and an attempt at a payday.”
Additionally, several users have brought up the fact that PUBG uses quite a lot of assets from Epic Games including Unreal Engine, and point to the outcome that resulted in a similar clash between Epic Games and Silicon Knights, with user FlotillaFlotsam explaining “PUBG Corp better hope for their sake that they're fully compliant with Unreal Engine's EULA; the last time a company licensing Unreal sued Epic Games, Epic flipped the board and countersued for breech of agreement, which resulted in all copies of Too Human being recalled and destroyed, and Silicon Knight's licensing rights being revoked. The company had existed since 1992, but the countersuit utterly destroyed them, and they went out of business a year later.” (sic)
Whatever the outcome, it’s clear that the war of the Battle Royale genre isn’t going away any time soon, especially with news that Activision will be muscling in on the act with their upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.