
Whether or not that constitutes unfair competition is now for the Korean legal system to decide.
Pubg vs fortnite free#
Just 25% exclusively play PUBG.Īccording to the company, Fortnite’s larger market share is likely due to the fact that it is free for anyone to pick up and play. According to the video game market intelligence company, 35% of battle royale players now exclusively play Fortnite. Research conducted by Newzoo suggests that this is the case.

Anecdotally, it seems as though many gamers switched to Fortnite, but the two have very different looks and feels, so it is hard to say,” “One could argue that it took lots of the existing PUBG gamers. I’m no lawyer, but given Epic Games took a popular $30 game, redesigned it and then released it for free, there is certainly a case to be made for the latter. Rather than arguing that Fortnite doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, Lobov tells us, PUBG Corporation would have to rely on a combination of other legal arguments, such as infringement of trademarks and designs, or unfair competition.
Pubg vs fortnite software#
Id Software doesn’t own the first-person shooter genre for creating Doom, and Nintendo can’t sue every developer that has made a 3D platformer since Super Mario 64’s release. “The situation is made yet more complicated by the fact that the core gameplay loop, the so-called Battle Royale format, existed in popular culture long before either of these games became successful, making it less likely to be protectable by itself.” PUBG vs Fortnite: Does PUBG Corp have a case? Given that the battle royale genre was around a long time before it found its way into the video game mainstream last year, it’s particularly difficult for PUBG Corporation to justify that they have any sort of claim to it. There are only certain ways certain games can be represented and both PUBG and Fortnite are part of a wider genre of shooters, so for anyone of them to claim they own the exclusive rights is impossible.” “Allowing an entire genre to be protected is something that would stifle competition and also is a slippery slope. “An entire genre is not protectable (under English law, at least) and so the statements about “replicating the experience” seem unlikely to succeed on a copyright infringement basis.” However, we have yet to receive a response.Īccording to Alex Tutty, head of the Computer Games Department at leading media law firm Sheridans, unless the company has concrete evidence that their intellectual property has been stolen, there isn’t much chance of that happening. Verdict approached Bluehole Studio, PUBG Corporation’s parent company, for comment. This would suggest that what PUBG Corporation is actually seeking is a monopoly of the battle royal genre.
Pubg vs fortnite code#
The issue doesn’t seem to be that the Battlegrounds source code or graphics has been stolen or modified in any way without PUBG Corp’s permission, but that Fortnite is “replicating the experience” of Battlegrounds, as the studio said last year. “If what has been taken is abstract in nature, a copyright infringement claim will be more difficult to prove,” “Each country’s laws are slightly different, but the success of failure of this type of claim will generally depend on whether what has been allegedly copied can be tied to a specific, valid copyright work,” It seems unlikely that PUBG Corporation has much of a case, given what the company is asking for here.Īccording to Kostyantyn Lobov, a senior associate at Harbottle & Lewis, PUBG Corporation would have to prove that some part of Fortnite has been copied from a valid copyright work.

There is no denying that Fortnite is essentially the same game with a different art style, but does PUBG Corporation really have a case here and, if so, what impact might this have on the video game industry? Will PUBG be the last man standing? Battle royale is generating big money and Epic Games is holding PUBG back from dominating the market. That should tell you everything that you need to know about this case. “Even as far out as 2022 we expect revenue to still be growing significantly.”

Pubg vs fortnite Pc#
“In China, one of the markets Niko Partners covers, which accounts for nearly half of the global PC games market, battle royale games revenue should nearly double in 2018 over 2017,” Cosmas Hanson said. “The genre is going to be very large – it is already the fastest growing genre.”
