Fortnite has eclipsed the once dominant PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds title, both in terms of mindshare and money. Last week, the former was reported to have pulled in $296 million for the month of April — a financial windfall that’s only likely to increase as the title makes its way to Android in the coming months.
Now the company behind PUBG is taking Fortnite’s creators to court. PUBG (the company), a subsidiary of Bluehole (the company behind PUBG, the game — slightly confusing, I know), has filed a suit against Epic Games over copyright infringement concerns. The South Korean suit, noted by The Korea Times, takes particular issue with Fortnite’s battle royale mode.
Bluehole has been vocal about the similarities since the new mode was released in September. The developer released a statement at the time, addressing “growing concerns” with its former partner.
“After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing the gameplay for ourselves,” the developer wrote, “we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.”
PUBG’s popularity has been declining since the beginning of this year, while Fortnite has continued to pick up steam. Last week, Epic announced that it would be investing $100 million into eSports competitions over the next two years.
Epic declined offer a comment for this story.
