Korean game developer PUBG, a subsidiary of Bluehole, has filed a copyright violation lawsuit against U.S.-based Epic Games, asking a court to determine whether the latter’s “Fortnite” was copied from the former’s “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.”
A PUBG official said Friday that the firm filed an injunction, alleging copyright infringement, with the Seoul Central District Court against Epic Games Korea.
This is crazy. The two games share the same premise, but are entirely different in almost every element of execution. The games industry has always been refreshingly progressive in the way it handles copying ideas – it is entirely normal for revolutionary ideas and new gameplay elements to rapidly spread throughout the industry. This is one of the main reasons why the gaming world hasn’t really stagnated, and keeps coming up with new ideas and fresh takes, and also why small studios and even lone developers are relatively free to make whatever they want, copying ideas left and right.
If this case ever gets any serious traction, it will have a seriously chilling effect on the industry.
Funny when PUBG is basically a clone of H1Z1
Could you please not? This is crazy enough without people that have no idea what they are talking about spreading FUD:
H1Z1 release date: February 28, 2018
PUBG release date: December 20, 2017
DayZ Battle royale ArmA mod made by PUBG author release date: At some point in 2013. Two years before H1Z1 was even in Early Access.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/1m9wju/announcing_dayz_battle…
No matter what one think of this case, who came first is crystal clear.
H1Z1 had a “release” in 2018, but it was in early access since 2015.
The movie probably came first.
Does the filing say “they stole our thunder!!”?
It wasn’t long ago that some people tried to trademark “Candy” and “Saga”.
And there isn’t just one games industry – this is the Korean games industry. Most the news we get accustomed to is the American games industry.
That’s not how copyright work.
This is an excellent take on this controversy:
https://youtu.be/2CZO_Aofsiw
Edited 2018-05-30 03:19 UTC
If I recall, there’s more to the story than just one game copying some concepts from another game.
I believe the PUBG developers paid Epic to help them optimize the Unreal Engine during the development of PUBG, then a few months later Epic turned around and released a direct competitor to PUBG, clearly ripping off many of the same concepts. It’s still a cash grab no doubt, but the fact that Epic was at least tangentially involved with the development of PUBG makes this a little more murky IMHO.
Also ideas are not copyrightable.