Bluehole Suing Epic Over Fortnite/PUBG Copyright Infringement

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
Share:

Back in September, Bluehole Studios issued a statement about Fortnite: Battle Royale, saying there was "community concern" about the title and its similarities to its own PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Bluehole also took issue with Epic saying its dev team "love Battle Royale games like PUBG" and called out Epic for being the creators of Unreal Engine 4 -- which PUBG also uses -- as another concern.

While the language in Bluehole's statement sounded harsh and a little petulant, it seemed that whatever animosity there might have been between the two companies had passed, especially after PlayerUnkown himself, Brendan Greene, said some complimentary things about Fortnite.

Well, scratch all that.

The PUBG Corporation, the Bluehole subsidiary that manages PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, has filed a lawsuit against Epic Games. According to The Korea Times, the suit was filed in January -- two months before Greene's statements -- alleging copyright infringement. There's no word yet on exactly what kind of damages PUBG/Bluehole are seeking, or when the case will be tried in court, if it gets to that stage.

It's not the first time PUBG has sued to protect its copyrights, as it did against a pair of mobile battle royale games published by Netease in April. While courts can be fickle, this case will probably play out differently, not only with how different PUBG and FNBR are, but also with how the case will go down in the court of public opinion, given Fortnite's phenomenal popularity.

Share:
Got a news tip? Contact us directly here!

About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (10)

Nipsey 6 years ago
thats pretty funny indeed :D
good riddance pubg, never played never will, surely nobody will miss it

LookyHere 6 years ago
Sounds to me pubg side is just crying that fortnite is now taking all that revenue and popularity that pubg once had, typical cry baby move. You didn't see epic suing ID software over quake 3 arena because it was the same idea or genre of shooter as Unreal Tournament. Some lawsuits are just fracking stupid, pointless and a waste of money, resources and the justice/court system. But hey least the lawyers will get paid well. Kinda makes me wanna quit being a gamer and instead become lawyers for the companies lol.

Anyways I'm not a fan boy of either game. Never played or will play either one of them,
I'm just tossing the truth out there from my perspective.

Sorry had to edit that kinda left a point out lol bit tired.

rickshaw 6 years ago
They don't own the right to battle royale, The japanese movie does .
There should be a back fire twist here, if they proceed further with this and with media attention to puke and fork they both won't have a leg to stand on as they both never came up with the idea the movie did, and good on the movie guys if they get in on the suing. thanks puke for starting a stupid war on not your own idea!

itame 6 years ago
If I could sue everyone who did anything better than me,
|
|
|
|
I'd be no where because I would lose every single time.

View 1 reply
DEmodeboom 6 years ago
its funny because blue hole asked for help from epic in how to use the unreal engine 4.

Irony is strong in this dev.

Cool Fez 6 years ago
they mad cus outplayed

Gunes 6 years ago
Oh really? So they are not afraid of H1Z1 devs to sue them too... Wait a minute. Their corporation is already dead.

IsamiOni 6 years ago
Those retards just can't give up even after they lost first time. What a bunch of retards working in this Butthole studios.

They've been kicked out of NC Soft>been sued for stealing Lineage 3 source code and creating Tera based on it>been forced to pay huge dough for the committed crime. They took Epic's engine and released shitty Tera.

Much later they hired Brendan Greene who created Arma2/3 Battle Royal mod based on 2000 Japanese movie [not to mention that movie was a horrible adaptation of the novel but he modified his mode to be even more stupid than the movie]. Guess what? They took EPIC's game engine again.

And now they even dare suing them for creating f***ing DEATHMATCH game. Let's all be frank. what's common between PUBG and Fortnite BR:
- players drop from something flying above the island.
- players have to kill each other.
- players have to pick up weapons on the map.
- players can pick up weapon dropped from dead enemies.
- shrinking zone.

What's different:
- PUBG has retarded physics and flying cars and motorcycles / Fortnite doesn't have vehicles.
- PUBG has bombardment / Fortnite doesn't.
- PUBG has bulletproof vests that have to be changed if broken or damaged for better one/
Fortnite has energy barrier that replenishes with armor pickups like in Unreal or Quake.
- Fortnite has crafting which is essential to your survival in a fight / PUBG doesn't.

Let's remember such mysterious mode that exists only in legends called Free-for-All [Quake 3 arena or Unreal Tournament for example] and compare it with the list above.
What do those modes have in common:
- players have to kill each other.
- players have to pick up weapons on the map.
- players can pick up weapon dropped from dead enemies.

The only different thing absent in FFA is shrinking zone. Who's been plagiarizing here kore-tards, eh? So the can take their middle finger and put it really deep inside their Butthole studios.

P.S. And then they don't understand why everyone hates Korea...both of 'em.

jackie 6 years ago
hahaha they are so Mad Cuz game is Dead Now


Read Next

You May Enjoy