Less than a month after news broke about PUBG Corp filing lawsuit against Epic Games for Fortnite: Battle Royale, the former has now withdrawn the same. Bloomberg reported the withdrawal but whether a settlement was reached or not hasn’t been revealed.
PUBG Corp, which is responsible for the breakout hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, expressed concern over Fortnite: Battle Royale’s similarities last year. It hinted at legal action, which drew its fair share of backlash. Epic Games confirmed it took inspiration from Battle Royale titles like PUBG but felt that Fortnite “would make a great foundation for our own version.” PUBG Corp’s lawsuit was stated as a “measure to protect our copyrights.”
To further complicate the issue is Tencent. The Chinese publisher owns a 10 percent stake in Bluehole (which PUBG Corp is a part of) and a 40 percent stake in Epic Games. Both games also utilize Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. Is it possible that Tencent served as mediator, pushing PUBG Corp to drop the lawsuit?
Whatever the case may be, the Battle Royale genre has extended to numerous other titles. Realm Royale, Fear the Wolves, Mavericks: Proving Grounds and much more have already presented their own vision for the game mode. That’s not taking into account big-name titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Battlefield 5 that will introduce similar modes. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds might want sit back and just appreciate the good will.