In September of 2017, Playerunknown Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp, a subsidiary of Korean game company Bluehole, claimed that they were considering taking Fortnite dev Epic Games to court. PUBG Corp claims that Fortnite's Battle Royale mode copied too much from PUBG's own mode, ranging from the gameplay to the UI. They also state that PUBG Corp had been talking to Epic Games throughout PUBG's development, as it uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, and that the company had taken their idea, and added it onto their already existing Fortnite game. Recently, a copyright claim was supposedly filed in Korea by Bluehole, and will go to the courts in Seoul.

This isn't the first time we've seen Bluehole go to court, either. In the Northern California district courts, PUBG Corp took NetEase to court over copyright concerns with a 155-page document describing how NetEase's mobile titles Rules of Survival and Knives Out battle royale games stole the concept from Playerunknown Battlegrounds. Bluehole also tried to claim they had the sole ability to use frying pans as weapons in video games. Fortnite is set to officially become available in Korea soon (published by NeoWiz) but this lawsuit might delay things.

The last time Epic Games was sued, it was by Silicon Knights, for the game Too Human; as Epic allegedly breaching their contract. The suit was dismissed, and Epic counter-sued Silicon Knights, forcing the company to permanently recall their game from sale and pay 4.45 million to Epic Games.

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[Joom]

Not hating because it’s popular. Hating it because nobody can shut up about it in my school for more than 5 seconds. Also, THE GAMES ARE BORING TO ME. Also, Pokemon is actually enjoyable to me and, I’m basically the only person in my school who plays it. I’m ok with hearing about it online, but hearing it all the time and then online can really set me off and cause me to - oh, no - give a personal opinion. Sorry I don’t like battle royale games, and I’m not just a “Nintendo fan in a bubble.” I’ve played plenty of PC games as well. Additionally, are you referring to Nintendo or the fans when you said they’re not so good anymore? Because there doesn’t seem to be a problem with either of them to me and if anything, Nintendo is actually improving. Sorry if this was long-winded, but this pretty much the only time I can give my opinion on the subject.

Yeah, I get it. You're not old enough to get it and are stuck in the awkward, edgy phase of arrogant superiority brought on by "muh games are better even though I don't know good games". Pokémon hasn't been enjoyable since 2004, and Nintendo is consistently raping their fans with a smile. Battle royale mechanics have existed ever since arcade days. It's just popular to hate the games now because they're popular thanks to the exposure brought on by the internet. I don't even play these games, but I'd never hate them, especially when they bring exposure to video games in general.

 

[FAST6191]

I just can’t wait for when battle royale games die out. They aren’t fun, they’re the only thing people talk about (making it hard to talk about ANYTHING to ANYONE, at least in my school) and all they’re gonna do is copy each other, sue each other, and try to 1-up each other until they milk the games for all the money they’re worth. I’m sick and tired of hearing Fortnite this, PUBG that. And the stupid dances that you see 5-year-olds doing in the middle of Walmart. I hope that stops too.

I might be willing to take arguments on the current crop not being fun (it is a relatively unexplored style and most game makers don't seem to take things all that scientifically, and we have seen this many times before in other fad gameplay styles) but the principle sounds OK.

So competition/test of skill. Common in games and a thing people demonstrably like.
Ability to drop in and drop out without worrying about the flow of the game.
People still able to have some fun even if they are not in the lead (do I care that someone else is doing something if I am in the middle of an intense sniper battle?), such that isn't for these.
Scope for serious customisation, something will hopefully keep it fresh.
While there invariably appear to be some random elements they appear to be low impact enough to almost function as a means to keep things fresh.

As for people dancing then kids have aped popular concepts at least for decades and most likely millennia, and that is before we consider things like dancing mania.

 

[Deleted User]

This thread has made my day. Go PUBG!

 

[Joom]

I might be willing to take arguments on the current crop not being fun (it is a relatively unexplored style and most game makers don't seem to take things all that scientifically, and we have seen this many times before in other fad gameplay styles) but the principle sounds OK.

So competition/test of skill. Common in games and a thing people demonstrably like.
Ability to drop in and drop out without worrying about the flow of the game.
People still able to have some fun even if they are not in the lead (do I care that someone else is doing something if I am in the middle of an intense sniper battle?), such that isn't for these.
Scope for serious customisation, something will hopefully keep it fresh.
While there invariably appear to be some random elements they appear to be low impact enough to almost function as a means to keep things fresh.

As for people dancing then kids have aped popular concepts at least for decades and most likely millennia, and that is before we consider things like dancing mania.

He seems to be under the impression that fads only belong to his generation. Sad to see a good chunk here not know what the 90s were like, heh.

 

[BORTZ]

I guess I was under the impression that the battle royal PUBG/FN split was pretty polarizing. Either you like and play one or the other and dont care about the one you dont play. Regardless what PUBG is suing Epic for, its going to make them look petty for Sesame Street Fortnite "stealing" players.

 

[Sucht93a]

Conker's bad fur day used frying pans as weapons years ago...the puppet tv series dinosaurs used frying pans as weapons against stupid fathers last century...How could they even think about that they came up with this idea

 

[Joom]

Conker's bad fur day used frying pans as weapons years ago...the puppet tv series dinosaurs used frying pans as weapons against stupid fathers last century...How could they even think about that they came up with this idea

They're not suing Epic over this one. They sued some mediocre mobile developer for that. What gets me is that PUBG just uses assets from the Unreal asset store, so they really can't sue anyone for that. They're trying to solely sue for mechanics, which is hilarious.

 

[DinohScene]

Both horrible games if you ask me.

 

[Jonna]

Yeah, I get it. You're not old enough to get it and are stuck in the awkward, edgy phase of arrogant superiority brought on by "muh games are better even though I don't know good games". Pokémon hasn't been enjoyable since 2004, and Nintendo is consistently raping their fans with a smile. Battle royale mechanics have existed ever since arcade days. It's just popular to hate the games now because they're popular thanks to the exposure brought on by the internet. I don't even play these games, but I'd never hate them, especially when they bring exposure to video games in general.

Actually, there may be something going on. I just recently saw my local elementary school let out kids for recess, and a huge majority of them whipped out their phones and that schoolyard was eerily quiet (except when they lost).

Pokemon, POGs, other fads I can't remember were definitely affecting many kids back when I was in school at the time for them but it was always only reaching, at max, half of us. Never seen something control the attention of so many at once like I just did.

 

[linuxares]

Both horrible games if you ask me.

All of the Battle Royale games are terrible to me. They bring out the worst in people most of the time. Plus I don't got the time to sink in to get anyway near good to win the chicken dinner.

 

[MikaDubbz]

But I wanted a monopoly!!! It's not fair!!!

 

[Deleted member 420418]

I think both of them should close down, because they are very boring for me and don't keep my attention for very long.

 

[Subtle Demise]

No you're not sure its covered by the contract, you're guessing. You have no idea what is in that contract, no one here does. You don't like what they're doing and just assuming they're in the wrong. Taking a big company like Epic to court isn't cheap, they're unlikely to have done so if they didn't believe they had some legal standing.

I think they bankrupted some no-name East Asian companies, so with the money from that, they can afford to lose now. Still can't copyright game mechanics. The creators of Space War should sue every game company in existence, for the idea of using buttons to control the game.

 

[DrayanoX]

I honestly hope they win, fortnite blatantly copied PUBG. Not fair that Epic got all the money

Fortnite is better because it's free and it doesn't run like ass on most PC

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I think they bankrupted some no-name East Asian companies, so with the money from that, they can afford to lose now. Still can't copyright game mechanics. The creators of Space War should sue every game company in existence, for the idea of using buttons to control the game.

Yeah but it's pretty stupid to sue Epic Games because if they lose and Epic decides to void their license for using Unreal Engine then they're pretty much dead.

 

[Armadillo]

Salt.

Just upset that people have an alternative to the buggy unoptimised mess that is pubg. Should think about sorting your own game out, rather than sue others.

 

[KingVamp]

I do think it is crazy to want companies to die, simply because you don't like the genre. As if you can't just not play the games.

"I hate things that are popular because they're popular." Why is GBATemp this disconnected from having fun? You think the constant barrage of Pokémon and the like didn't get annoying for the previous generation? More importantly, why can Nintendo fans not escape their bubble? They ain't so good anymore. Sorry.

I like how you tried to call him out for hating "things that are popular because they're popular.", but then decided to do the exact same thing by hating on Pokemon, Nintendo and the whole Nintendo fanbase.

That said I think software patents are disgusting

While they can be abused, why are software patents specifically a problem?

 

[FAST6191]

I like how you tried to call him out for hating "things that are popular because they're popular.", but then decided to do the exact same thing by hating on Pokemon, Nintendo and the whole Nintendo fanbase.

While they can be abused, why are software patents specifically a problem?

Surely that would require Pokemon, Nintendo and the Nintendo fanbase to be popular.

Anyway on software patents.
Generally speaking you can't patent maths and software is maths. That alone is enough to tank it for me.

Couple in the US patent office's general approach to prior art and obviousness (which is to say not held in high regard and not comparable to the rest of the world) and things only get worse.

After that I will go with https://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5862284/9-charts-that-show-patents-are-bad-for-the-software-industry , https://nothings.org/computer/patents.html and https://www.wired.com/2015/02/eff-eliminate-software-patents/

 

[KingVamp]

Anyway on software patents.
Generally speaking you can't patent maths and software is maths. That alone is enough to tank it for me.

Couple in the US patent office's general approach to prior art and obviousness (which is to say not held in high regard and not comparable to the rest of the world) and things only get worse.

After that I will go with https://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5862284/9-charts-that-show-patents-are-bad-for-the-software-industry , https://nothings.org/computer/patents.html and https://www.wired.com/2015/02/eff-eliminate-software-patents/

Might read more later, but shouldn't this mean we need a better and clearer patent system in general? Otherwise, anyone can steal any code that people could have work years on and sell it as their own. For example, without patents, what's to stop someone else from selling iOS or something like Google Assistant?

 

[chirogan]

I cant believe how this copyright claiming lawsuits are going out of hand. Most of them were just getting attention or deliberate action to get fame or claim. Copyrighting isnt a protection of ideas and inventions anymore. More like using it as deterent to competition and innovation.

 

[FAST6191]

You can have copyright on the code you have written and trademarks for those things it is applicable for. I am fine with that, though some wonder at the extent that should be allowed (do we need life + many decades for software from the 70s?).

The US and Japan are the main places for software patents, everywhere else not so much. Everywhere else seems to be doing OK.