"Fortnite Battle Royale" is probably the most popular video game at the moment. Epic Games has done a great job making the game interesting and updating it every week, and that is why the game has over 50 million players right now. The game looks much different now than it looked in September 2017 when it was just released, and the game developer keeps releasing fresh content that makes the game look good.
Unfortunately, Epic Games is dealing with a lawsuit at the moment, and the lawsuit was filed by their biggest competitor, the owner of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." "PUBG," which was released in March 2017, became incredibly popular, which is one of the reasons why Epic Games decided to make a battle royale mode of "Fortnite." Even though these two games have different styles and audiences, their similarities are the reason why PUBG Corporation has filed this lawsuit.
The lawsuit
PUBG Corporation accused Epic Games of infringing its copyright. The corporation filed a lawsuit which focuses on "Fortnite Battle Royale's" potential copying of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'" items and user interface. However, the lawsuit most likely won't succeed, according to experts.
“The basic notion is that copyright does not protect ideas,” said Kim Barker, who is a lecturer at University of Stirling and specializes in intellectual property law. Barker said that two games can have the same idea and each game can express it in its own way. Additionally, the lecturer described this case as “frivolous.”
Even though PUBG Corporation released "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" first, it cannot stop Epic Games from making its own version of a battle royale game.
Both companies can have copyright in their own way, but no company can claim the idea. The only way for the "PUBG" developer to prove copyright infringement would be the use of game assets and code in "Fortnite Battle Royale."
The game engine
It is important to note that the two popular battle royale games share the same engine, Unreal Engine 4.
This engine is created and licensed by Epic Games, and PUBG Corporation might have been better off avoiding this lawsuit.
in 2007, Silicon Knights, creators of "Too Human," sued Epic Games. "Too Human" was based on Unreal Engine and its developer sued the engine developer for "breach of contract." Five years later, Epic Games won the lawsuit and over $4 million. Additionally, Silicon Knights was forced to recall and destroy all of their unsold copies of the game.
