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PUBG: Battlegrounds

The PUBG devs consider legal action against Epic Games

Is Fortnite's upcoming Battle Royale mode just a blatant copy? Bluehole thinks so.

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Earlier this week, we learned that Fortnite's Battle Royale will be free. That obviously drew a lot of attention, including the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developers at Bluehole Studio.

We're not talking the good kind here, as Bluehole's Chang Han Kim has published the following press release:

"We've had an ongoing relationship with Epic Games throughout PUBG's development as they are the creators of UE4, the engine we licensed for the game. After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing the gameplay for ourselves, we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.

We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with the press. This was never discussed with us and we don't feel that it's right."

It's kind of understandable that Kim speaks up against other developers "copying their concept", but it's worthy mentioning that PUBG was far from being the first game in the world to take quite a lot of inspiration from the Battle Royale films. That doesn't stop Kim from making a very interesting statement later on it the press release:

"The PUBG community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further action."

Are we the only ones that thinks this sounds like threatening to take legal action? Doing so would be very interesting, as Epic Games isn't the only developers studio that has released their own take on the "Battle Royale genre" lately? Where will Bluehole draw the line? Brendan Greene recently stated the following regarding others doing something similar to PUBG:

"Other companies will of course enter the marketplace, but I would just hope they put their own spin on the game-mode and not just make a carbon copy!

I try not to worry about them to be honest and instead just concentrate on completing my vision for a battle royale game."

It'll be interesting to see if this ends up just being a press release, or if Bluehole actually wants to take it a step further. Of course, if they do, how would that effect the partnership they have with Epic in terms of the game engine?

Do you think it's reasonable to claim ownership of a genre?

PUBG: Battlegrounds

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