Bluehole is contemplating action against Fortnite for copying PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Bluehole, developers of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), the first standalone Battle Royale survival shooter, responded today to growing concerns regarding the similarities between the battle royale mode in Epic Games’ newly-revealed Fortnite and PUBG.

“We’ve had an ongoing relationship with Epic Games throughout PUBG’s development as they are the creators of Unreal Engine 4 (UE4), the engine we licensed for the game,” said Chang Han Kim, Vice President and Executive Producer for Bluehole. “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.”

The development team for PUBG has no relationship to Fortnite’s development as concerns around User Interface (UI), gameplay and structural replication in the battle royale mode exist.

“We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with the press,” Chang Han Kim continues. “This was never discussed with us and we don’t feel that it’s right.”

With its release on March 23, 2017, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a last man standing shooter that drops players on a realistic island where they start with nothing in an ever-diminishing field of play. Gamers must fight to locate weapons, vehicles and supplies as they strive to be the lone survivor.

In a recent Reddit session, Brendan Greene, better known as PlayerUnknown, was asked about other companies replicating the Battle Royale experience. He said, “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!” It seems that Epic Games just put out a carbon copy instead.

Chang Han Kim closed by saying, “The PUBG community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further action.” Given the fact that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds uses UE4 and Fortnite’s mode is very similar, there may be an investigation behind the technologies involved. I guess this may lead to a lawsuit but we aren’t sure because it’s highly unlikely. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we know more.