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.

Source

 

[Deleted User]

Given how Fortnite's popularity totally eclipsed PUBG's, even though PUBG came first, this was to be expected.

To be fair, though, Fortnite literally ripped a lot of design cues from PUBG. I hear there's a story behind that.

 

[OctolingRift]

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

 

[Chary]

Given how Fortnite's popularity totally eclipsed PUBG's, even though PUBG came first, this was to be expected.

To be fair, though, Fortnite literally ripped a lot of design cues from PUBG. I hear there's a story behind that.

The fact PUBG tried to sue a game for use of a frying pan shoes that they're a little crazy and tend to over-reach with their ccopyright claims, even if there's similar design choices between it and Fortnite.

 

[Justinde75]

Yeah but the battle royale concept wasnt pubg's idea in the first place

 

[DeslotlCL]

How are they even supposed to win the court when fortnite plays nothing like pugb? In that caze h1z1 developer should take pugb corp to court... or even better, minecraft devs should take everybody to court since everybody is copying minecraft hunger games.

What a load of bullshit. Bluehole is losing active players and potential costumers, you can feel how sacred they are... just like other companies do to nintendo with their copyright claims.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Court precedent already shows that you can't own game mechanics. Sucks to suck, Bluehole, but another game can copy your game 100% to the letter, and as long as its all original assets, there is no legal case to be had.

 

[Deleted User]

The whole pubg vs fortnite thing kind of has that halo vs cod vibe from last generation.Fortnite has that cancerous community like cod has too.

Why are shooters the most cancerous games on earth?

 

[mar789]

Acting like they created battle royal games lol

 

[spectral]

Court precedent already shows that you can't own game mechanics. Sucks to suck, Bluehole, but another game can copy your game 100% to the letter, and as long as its all original assets, there is no legal case to be had.

This situation is a little different than usual though because PUBG uses epic's game engine. It's possible other technicalities regarding specific contract terms, code or assets they had access too could be part of it. However if that is the case or not, we're never likely to find out.

 

[WiiUBricker]

I hope Epic Games loses. I played both and it is too obvious that too much was copied.

 

[DeslotlCL]

I hope Epic Games loses. I played both and it is too obvious that too much was copied.

This is why we need a dislike button.

 

[Ericthegreat]

This is true.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

This situation is a little different than usual though because PUBG uses epic's game engine. It's possible other technicalities regarding specific contract terms, code or assets they had access too could be part of it. However if that is the case or not, we're never likely to find out.

Like I said, there's no case if Fortnite and PUBG don't share assets, and I'm sure any shared Unreal Engine 4 code is covered in Epic's licensing contract. If there's anything shared we don't know about, that's a different case and I suppose we'll find out in court.

I hope Epic Games loses. I played both and it is too obvious that too much was copied.

And what laws were broken? Dislike a game for being a clone, I'm not defending Fortnite, but this case has no place in a court of law. You can't own game mechanics.

 

[spectral]

Like I said, there's no case if Fortnite and PUBG don't share assets, and I'm sure any shared Unreal Engine 4 code is covered in Epic's licensing contract. If there's anything shared we don't know about, that's a different case and I suppose we'll find out in court.


And what laws were broken? Dislike a game for being a clone, I'm not defending Fortnite, but this case has no place in a court of law. You can't own game mechanics.

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.

 

[Navonod]

William Higinbotham should also sue.

 

[WiiUBricker]

And what laws were broken? Dislike a game for being a clone, I'm not defending Fortnite, but this case has no place in a court of law. You can't own game mechanics.

You should probably ask that a lawyer if you’re interested in specifics. My opinion is if someone blatantly copies someone else, then he should be appropriately punished.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Grasping at straws here, is this a honest feeling of copyright infringement or just being greedy and jealous? People just can't get along.

 

[DeslotlCL]

You should probably ask that a lawyer if you’re interested in specifics. My opinion is if someone blatantly copies someone else, then he should be appropriately punished.

But explain us, how does fortnite copies pugb in terms of gameplay and UI?

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

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.

Right, I made an educated guess that Unreal Engine 4 code (the engine itself) is protected under license, because it'd be pretty weird for a company to use Epic's Unreal Engine 4 and then sue Epic for using Unreal Engine 4. I've never played PUBG and am not really a fan of Fortnite, I don't have a pony in this race. Clearly Bluehole thinks that their game mechanics should be protected from copycats, and I'm trying to say that no one can own game mechanics as per previous court precedent, and therefore Bluehole has no case on those grounds. I fully expect Bluehole to challenge that precedent, and believe that's the intention behind the lawsuit.