PUBG drops lawsuit against creators of gaming phenom Fortnite
Both PUBG, the studio behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Fortnite developer Epic Games are part-owned by video games and social media giant Tencent
The studio behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has dropped its lawsuit against the creators of global sensation Fortnite, ending a legal battle between two of the world’s hottest video games.
PUBG Corp sent a letter of withdrawal to Epic Games’ lawyers on Monday and the South Korean case has since closed, according to the website of the local court system. PUBG and its law firm confirmed the action but would not say why, nor whether a settlement had been reached. Representatives for Epic in Korea had no immediate comment.
Both game studios are part-owned by Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings and have carved out commanding positions in the battle royale gaming genre.
PUBG contended in January that Epic’s Fortnite mimicked many of the characteristics of its own title.
The copyright infringement accusation came as PUBG separately sued China’s NetEase for allegedly basing two games – Rules of Survival and Knives Out – on its product.
PUBG, an affiliate of South Korean studio Bluehole, has sold more than 44 million copies of its marquee title for personal computers and Microsoft’s Xbox console since its launch last year.
Its Hunger Games-style game, however, has seen its popularity wane as Fortnite’s has waxed.
Like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite features 100 people slaughtering each other, but differs by letting players build fortifications similar to Minecraft and using cartoonlike graphics.
To complicate matters, Epic provides PUBG with its Unreal Engine technology, used to create PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and an industry standard for professional game developers.