The Korean subsidiary of Bluehole, creators of PUBG, have just filed a lawsuit against Fortnite and Epic Games in South Korea. This lawsuit has been a long time coming for the studio who made the Battle Royale game mode the cultural phenomenon it is today. As such, it was challenged in popularity by Epic Games’ attempt with Fortnite: Battle Royale. Fortnite has overwhelmingly overtaken PUBG as the most popular Battle Royale game around.
This has pushed the Korean subsidiary to pursue a lawsuit in South Korea stating that Fortnite copies a little too much of PUBG. From user interface to items, the developer claims that Epic Games has outright copied PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, resulting in copyright infringement. The court will decide if the alleged copyright infringement is true or not in this case.
Though Epic Games is based mainly in the United States, the lawsuit was filed with the Seoul Central District Court against Epic Games Korea as reported by The Korea Times. According to the PUBG firm, it is “regrettable” that it has to file this lawsuit against Epic Games who has been a partner of Bluehole in the past.
This timing is rather interesting, as Fortnite plans to make its foray into the Korean market very soon. Epic Games is cooperating with Neowiz Games to release Fortnite Battle Royale on PC in South Korea sometime later this year. It is currently unsure if this lawsuit will result in a delay in that happening.
It is also unsure if this PUBG lawsuit will create a domino effect and encourage similar lawsuits in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Speaking of PUBG versus Fortnite, we recently compared the two in a great feature that we recommend you check out. We pose the question of what the PUBG needs to do in order to compete with Epic Games’ Fortnite after announcing a massive $100 million tournament.