PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Sues Epic Games’ Fortnite Over Copyright Infringement

• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is suing Epic Games’ Fortnite over copyright infringement in South Korea.
• The lawsuit was filed back in January, and PUBG put up a request for an injunction at Seoul’s Central District Court.
• According to a PUBG representative, the game developers are going ahead with the copyright lawsuit to protect the rights of the company.

The two biggest battle royale games will be pit against each other at the Seoul Central District Court over copyright infringement. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is suing Epic Games’ Fortnite over in South Korea to protect its rights. The lawsuit was filed back in January 2018, when the PUBG developers requested an injunction in court.

According to the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds' team, Fortnite is guilty of copying PUBG and infringes on its intellectual properties. Both games are popular battle royale games where up to a hundred players play on a single map for survival. While battle royale games had existed before the two behemoths of the gaming industry came into place, PUBG was the first game that popularized the genre. Fortnite’s battle royale mode came out months after PUBG, and the free-to-play model caused Epic Games’ title to overtake PUBG in terms of popularity.

Image Courtesy of Fortnite

This is not the first time PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has accused Fortnite of copying PUBG. PUBG Corporation publicly hinted at a lawsuit being prepared by the company against Fortnite. Both PUBG and Fornite have already been involved in multiple lawsuits involving smaller developers who copied the battle royale format. The developers have also been cracking down on cheaters in their respective games in the US.

Smaller games like “Knives Out” and “Rules of Survival” which belong to the same genre have been sued by PUBG, but this is the first time the developers have locked horns with each other. With millions of players playing both PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite, one shutting down the other will lead to a monopoly in the battle royale genre until a competitor comes along that can engage the player base. Even if the court rules in favor of PUBG, it is unlikely Fortnite will be shut down. Epic Games is likely to keep its game alive with changes that won't infringe on PUBG’s copyrights.