PUBG Launches Legal Action Against Fornite
With the massive success that PUBG saw last Summer, many suspected that when Fortnite arrived legal action was likely to shortly follow. Fortnite did, after all, emulate many things that were seen in PUBG. Survival, loots gathering and above all else the battle royale style of play. Surprisingly though, PUBG didn’t sue. If anything they seemed reasonably happy living side by side with the competing game.
Since then though, Fortnite has completely blown PUBG out of the water in terms of popularity. While PUBG still achieves over 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam, it is well below where it was around 6 months ago while Fortnite continues to grow.
Bluenote, the developer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, had been taking legal action against other similar games, but as above had largely left Fortnite alone. At least, until now. In a report via PCGamesN, Bluenote has now officially launched legal action against the developer, Epic Games.
A good legal case or simply sour grapes?
Bluenote has launched the legal action stating that they were: “concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.”
Why they have only just decided to do this right now is beyond me. The cynic in me, however, can only think that this is only due to a little sour grapes. When you consider how much more popular Fortnite is, despite PUBG getting the earlier release, it seems that the benign attitude PlayerUnknown’s Battlefields had did themselves no favors.
Although details are not specific, the lawsuit is thought to have something to do with the Unreal 4 engine.
We will keep you posted as and when further details emerge. I can’t help but feel though that if Bluenote thought that they had an actionable reason, why has it taken them to this point to see it through?
What do you think? Is this a legitimate claim or just sour grapes? – Let us know in the comments!
